Prioritise basics of childcare | Wairarapa Opinion | Local Voices from Wairarapa, New Zealand

It hasn't been an easy week to be a parent. First there was the uproar over images of All Black Piri Weepu being censored from an advertisement because he was bottle-feeding his baby.

The pro-breastfeeding lobby swung into action to have the images removed from the ad, for fear it would send the wrong signal and compromise the "breast is best" message.

That prompted an outpouring of arguments over whether good parents who make a personal choice to bottle feed their children are being unfairly stigmatised.

The furore still hadn't died down when Family First waded deeper into the parenting debate with a research paper that claimed daycare could have long-term mental and physical effects on children.

What a body-blow for hard-working parents who just can't afford one parent to stay home full-time.

Choosing to survive on one income can mean making other sacrifices which, in turn, have an impact on the well-being of children and families as well.

And there's also the well-being of mothers, who thrive on having a connection with the world outside of parenting, and continuing their career.

But all of that seems to pale into insignificance when you consider the case of the 9-year-old girl, whose father was jailed this week for standing by while her mother tortured her.

While good, loving parents are being made to feel like they are not good enough because they may bottle-feed, or put their kids into daycare at the same time, we're failing to deliver the services and safety nets that would save children such as that 9-year-old girl from abuse.

Next week, Norm Hewitt is in Wairarapa to promote the green paper on child abuse, currently open for public submissions.

The issues up for discussion are much more fundamental: how do we ensure all children grow up safe and without fear of violence or abuse, that they have enough to eat, and access to education.

Giving kids the best start is important, absolutely, but maybe we should focus on the basics first.