Don't you just love official reports? I've just been reading a BBC article about one generated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development called, a little cheesily, 'Doing better for the children'.

It compares the well-being of children in different countries - and the results for the UK are a mixed bag.

According to the report, our kids are generally not bullied too much, enjoy a high quality of school life and don't experience a great deal of poverty. But before we pat ourselves on the back too much, the report has discovered that we have more underage drunks (and especially girls) than any other country, more than double the rate than the US, France and Italy. It also highlights the UK's well-publicised high teenage pregnancy rates.

First-off, I'm a little skeptical about reports like these, querying where OECD get their precise percentages from. In this case, are they actually out on the streets counting the teenagers that gather to drink their cider (and do other things besides)? I doubt it. It's probably done by doing a small survey and multiplying up - dodgy stats!

Not that I am denying the drink and pregnancy problem among youngsters in this country, which is a real issue. I actually feel the schools are doing what they can in educating today's teenagers - and it's actually down to parents being better role models for their children, particularly in alcohol consumption, doing a little better in keeping tabs on where their offspring are on a Friday night - and providing safer alternatives.

Of course, all of this is easy for me to say. My eldest starts school for the first time tomorrow (whilst my youngest reaches the grand old age of two later this month) so I have years before this becomes real issues for me and my parenting skills - I hope! I shudder to think of the state of this country by then.

(Photo credit: Bernard Laguerre)