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You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/18/odds-on-child-bookies-harry-wilson
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| What are the odds on your child's future success? Ask the bookies | What are the odds on your child's future success? Ask the bookies |
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| Parenting today, as we parents know, is one tough task. Our parents, like everyone's parents, had it laughably easy compared to what we have to cope with now. The initial production process remains pretty similar, admittedly, but subsequent stages have radically diverged into far deeper and uncomfortable complexities. | Parenting today, as we parents know, is one tough task. Our parents, like everyone's parents, had it laughably easy compared to what we have to cope with now. The initial production process remains pretty similar, admittedly, but subsequent stages have radically diverged into far deeper and uncomfortable complexities. |
| Previously, pre-school was a matter of a couple of toys, the odd stick, a cardboard box and someone loosely related to share the burden. Now? Well, I don't have to tell you, and you wouldn't have the time between the Suzuki lesson, infant pilates, basic iPhone familiarisation and vetting upcoming arrangements for other permanent and passing forms of care. | Previously, pre-school was a matter of a couple of toys, the odd stick, a cardboard box and someone loosely related to share the burden. Now? Well, I don't have to tell you, and you wouldn't have the time between the Suzuki lesson, infant pilates, basic iPhone familiarisation and vetting upcoming arrangements for other permanent and passing forms of care. |
| And it just gets worse. Our parents were far more relaxed about schooling, because they understood this key but now disregarded educational truth: whatever choice you make, it will be the wrong one. And they had the equally unfashionable but consoling belief that hard times forge the aspirational, the self-sufficient, the highly motivated and the successful: what you might term the Boy-Named-Sue approach, after the robust choice of the caring if admittedly hands-off dad in the Johnny Cash song. | And it just gets worse. Our parents were far more relaxed about schooling, because they understood this key but now disregarded educational truth: whatever choice you make, it will be the wrong one. And they had the equally unfashionable but consoling belief that hard times forge the aspirational, the self-sufficient, the highly motivated and the successful: what you might term the Boy-Named-Sue approach, after the robust choice of the caring if admittedly hands-off dad in the Johnny Cash song. |
| All right, hold your hands up if you like: but how many idyllic, sun-touched, darkness-immune childhoods feature in the lives of the great and the driven? But that is not the way today: we want it all for them, and us; and, driven on by equal measures of competitive love and guilt, in our tigerish way we provide all imaginable affordable extras. | All right, hold your hands up if you like: but how many idyllic, sun-touched, darkness-immune childhoods feature in the lives of the great and the driven? But that is not the way today: we want it all for them, and us; and, driven on by equal measures of competitive love and guilt, in our tigerish way we provide all imaginable affordable extras. |
| I was going to say that nothing is left to chance. But chance is now contemplated, considered and factored. You might be aware of Peter Edwards of Denbighshire, who proudly watched his grandson, Harry Wilson, come on to play for Wales against Belgium in the 87th minute on Tuesday night, thereby winning Edwards £125,000 on the £50 bet he placed when Harry was 18 months old. Finely romantic; old-fashioned, almost. But there are other, increasingly popular parental bets that are more calculating, principally betting on children to do well at A-levels or university. | I was going to say that nothing is left to chance. But chance is now contemplated, considered and factored. You might be aware of Peter Edwards of Denbighshire, who proudly watched his grandson, Harry Wilson, come on to play for Wales against Belgium in the 87th minute on Tuesday night, thereby winning Edwards £125,000 on the £50 bet he placed when Harry was 18 months old. Finely romantic; old-fashioned, almost. But there are other, increasingly popular parental bets that are more calculating, principally betting on children to do well at A-levels or university. |
| Graham Sharpe, of William Hill, who paid out on Wilson, says it is now taking around a dozen or so bets like these every week. Ladbrokes says hundreds of parents have bet with it. Algorithms are involved. Odds, for example, on a student with three Bs at A-level getting a first in media studies at Leeds University are 5-1. Be warned, though: Sharpe will want to know some history, following the first bet he ever took, when the boy's headmaster rang up the next day and asked if could put a bet on, too. | Graham Sharpe, of William Hill, who paid out on Wilson, says it is now taking around a dozen or so bets like these every week. Ladbrokes says hundreds of parents have bet with it. Algorithms are involved. Odds, for example, on a student with three Bs at A-level getting a first in media studies at Leeds University are 5-1. Be warned, though: Sharpe will want to know some history, following the first bet he ever took, when the boy's headmaster rang up the next day and asked if could put a bet on, too. |
| Chris Woodhead, the former chief inspector of schools, has been quoted as describing such betting as "a jolly piece of fun", that is "not likely to add to the moral decline of the nation". Others are not so convinced, arguing that it places extra and unfair pressure on the wagered offspring. Those of the old school – and, my, what a hard place that was! – will recall the late Keith Miller, legendary Australian fast bowler and wartime fighter pilot, giving his view that pressure is a Messerschmitt up your arse. | Chris Woodhead, the former chief inspector of schools, has been quoted as describing such betting as "a jolly piece of fun", that is "not likely to add to the moral decline of the nation". Others are not so convinced, arguing that it places extra and unfair pressure on the wagered offspring. Those of the old school – and, my, what a hard place that was! – will recall the late Keith Miller, legendary Australian fast bowler and wartime fighter pilot, giving his view that pressure is a Messerschmitt up your arse. |
| And, besides, as we are all agreed that parenting is really tough, surely just a bit of alleviating fun and light relief should be allowed? | And, besides, as we are all agreed that parenting is really tough, surely just a bit of alleviating fun and light relief should be allowed? |
| With this in mind, I have a few suggestions for some other bets on your children: date of first party without tears and displaced jelly. School report without note of quiet despair at exam prospects. Police report on disturbance at your house after Facebook party invitation goes viral. Date of child's first at-fault car accident in your car. Date of first time your child says to you, "are you all right for money?". Date of first time your child tells his or her child, "because I say so". | With this in mind, I have a few suggestions for some other bets on your children: date of first party without tears and displaced jelly. School report without note of quiet despair at exam prospects. Police report on disturbance at your house after Facebook party invitation goes viral. Date of child's first at-fault car accident in your car. Date of first time your child says to you, "are you all right for money?". Date of first time your child tells his or her child, "because I say so". |
| • The sub heading of this article was corrected at 10.40am on Friday 18 October. It said Harry Wilson was a rugby player, rather than a footballer. | |
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