It's 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, I'm good guy, bad guy, cash machine, taxi driver, and cleaner, among other things.

Although I've had this "job" for nearly 18 years, it's still a learning curve and I'm still making mistakes and am nowhere near perfect, but as a parent it's a job I love doing.

And while I respect the decision of some people who choose not to have children, since the day Sue and I discovered we were going to have a new arrival back in late November, 1991, we've never regretted our decision to start a family.

Sue and I are no different to the overwhelming majority of people, we all try to do what's best for our families.

As I said, none of us is perfect and clearly sometimes things don't always run smoothly.

But two events in the media last week really had me thinking about a worrying aspect of society.

First, we had the woman in the West Country dubbed by police as the "most evil mother in Britain".

She made out her young son was seriously ill, made him use a wheelchair, and gave him medication when there was nothing wrong with him.

Her scheme got her a lot of publicity, appearances on national television and even an invitation from Tony and Cherie Blair to 10 Downing Street, as well as more than £100,000 in state benefits.

Then, at the end of last week, we had the climax of the torture trial in Yorkshire, where the two young brothers, after being found guilty of their shocking crimes, were detained indefinitely.

While no one can either condone or explain their actions, perhaps some explanation was offered up when we learned of their backgrounds, with parents addicted to drink and drugs who basically churned out children in order to get more benefits.

While I fully agree with what the police said that the woman in West Country was truly evil, she's also got to have some kind of mental illness to create that whole charade and put a little boy through such pain and suffering.

But was she also driven by the benefits on offer?

The case in Yorkshire is in its own way equally as heinous, but is it the tip of the iceberg?

With our benefit system seemingly out of control, how many people go down the route of having children to get more money?

My mate is a barber in the town and he was telling me about a young lad who goes and has his hair cut, doesn't work and freely states how much he gets from the state.

The other week he came in delighted. Was it because he'd finally found work?

No, his 16-year-old girlfriend was now pregnant, which meant they'd now get a flat and more benefit.

There are a number of young couples in their teens who have children for all the right reasons, do the right thing, work and pay their way.

But what gives that young man I mentioned the motivation to find work?

And what example will this set to the new baby and any subsequent siblings?

Whether any of our political parties is prepared to address the issue properly remains to be seen.



Ian Hart's comment is published in the Herald series every Thursday

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