Last Christmas I saw a wonderful article that pointed out that far better than spending money on your child is to spend time with them. It would seem that we live at a time when children and teenagers get a bad press: obese, crime, guns, knives, disrespectful, drink, drugs, under-aged sex. Funnily enough (aside from firearms) these are the things adults have said about young people from the 50s and 60s. Your parents may have had these concerns about you or your siblings.

We often forget that children learn from what they see in us adults and this must tell us something about how we individually and collectively live our lives. It also says something about being judgemental and how helpful or destructive it is. If you’re a parent – or indeed if you have children in your family and friendship circle - I’d like you to spend some time with them. I’d like you to ask them how they are, how they are getting on, how they feel about life, what they wish for, what they are concerned about. And ask them how you could support them.

You see we are taught to tell children what to think and do. Do you do better when you are told or when you are asked and involved. If we are really serious about saving this planet we need a new approach and that means that we need to listen and learn from our children. As many of you parents know this helps them develop confidence, communication skills, respect, responsibility and to become co-operative and engaged. These are the very skills that we need for life.