Cara Usher-Smith

Nearly one in three British women are now predicted to have no children, compared to around one in 20 in 1970. The assumption is that this is because young women have simply lost interest in becoming parents. But on the contrary, nine out of ten say they hope to become mothers one day, and the desire for a home and a family to call their own remains stubbornly persistent.  Striking new analysis by the Centre for Social Justice published this month found that more than three million women aged 16 to 45 may miss out on having the family they hoped for – 600,000 more than if fertility patterns matched their grandparents’ generation.  Make no mistake, this is one of the forgotten tragedies of our time.

Would you knowingly give your daughter a birthday present that was going to increase her chances of self-harming, developing anxiety and even depression? I assume the answer would be no, yet this is what so many parents do to their children when they give them a smartphone with access to social media. You could not design anything more pernicious for socially insecure teenagers As a mother of two daughters who are now teenagers, I know the pressure to do so feels enormous. Children see us adults glued to our phones, their peers have them, and their friends socialise on them. The temptation to give in can be, like the temptation to check WhatsApp, overwhelming. Helpfully, some new research has come out which should help parents make the right decision.