Is your child happier than you were growing up?

SIX out of 10 working parents with pre-school children believe the quality of life for their Celtic Tiger cubs is better than their own childhood.

The figure rises to seven in 10 in households where at least one parent has remained at home to rear the children. These are the parents most likely to agree their children have a better quality of life. In homes where both parents work full-time, the quality of life rating drops slightly to 64%. However, a high percentage of households (28%) where both parents work and their children are pre-school age estimate the quality of children’s lives is “neither better nor worse” than their own.

The percentage of these households who believed their children’s quality of life is better - 59% - is lower than the general population of parents and tallies with the figure for single parents.

The attitudes to quality of life arose in an Irish Examiner/Lansdowne Market Research poll which asked parents how their childhood years compared with that of their children. The survey, which offered the rankings of “a lot better”; “better”; “neither better nor worse”; “worse”; “a lot worse” and “don’t know”, found most parents rated the quality of life for their children as “better” than their own.

* 68% of parents believed their children’s quality of life was better than theirs

* Only a quarter of households where both parents work considered their children’s lives “a lot better”

* One-in-five parents think the quality of life they had is neither better nor worse than their offspring

* Just 1% believe it to be a lot worse.

* Just 7% agreed their children’s lives were worse than theirs, although this rose to 12% in households where both parents work and children are of pre-school age. Where one parent works full-time and the other part-time, 11% agree the quality of their children’s lives is not as good as their own.

* The Irish Examiner/LMR survey involved 1,081 parents with children under the age of 14.