Passport wait time triples to 10 weeks
OUR Yorkshire Farm star Amanda Owen opened up about homeschooling with a brood of nine children – and admitted she and husband Clive left them to it.
The Huddersfield-born TV farmer said they let the children be in charge of their own online learning – because she doesn’t want them to be “snowflakes”.
Parents across the country had to suddenly become teachers when schools closed in the first lockdown – and then again in the third lockdown in January.
It left many with a new-found respect for the professionals who educate their children day-to-day, and grateful when easing restrictions meant all children headed back to the classroom last month.
Amanda said: “We logged in for about a week. Then I threw it back to them. Children have to be independent. I can’t be a helicopter parent. We read the papers and they show me some of their projects, but I have yet to be at a single parents’ evening. I did pretty poorly at my exams, but look at what I have achieved since then.”
She added: “The snowflake generation, they can’t do anything.
“They don’t know anything about how to look after themselves, or a work ethic, all of that has gone out of the window. It’s our fault as parents. If you put your child on a pedestal, with no sense of independence, and think you have got to entertain them the whole time, what can you expect?”
The TV farmer, who initially found fame in ITV’s The Dales, now stars in her own Channel 5 show about her family’s life in rural Yorkshire. It sees the children – from eldest Raven to toddler Nancy – regularly helping out on the farm.
Amanda added: “I rebuff swaddling children, because I want to see them go on and do well and be themselves, whatever that is. I feel like it is their life and all I do is prepare them.
“What we do on the farm, hopefully, is preparation for the big world.”
The maximum time for processing British passport applications has more than tripled due to an expected spike in demand.
HM Passport Office is telling travellers to allow up to 10 weeks up from three weeks previously.
Under that timeline, someone applying on Wednesday might not receive their passport until June 16. Just four million people applied for a passport in 2020 amid the collapse in overseas travel.
This is compared with around seven million during a normal year, suggesting there could be a rush of applications once the ban on holidays is lifted. People whose passports are nearly expired will be sent text messages telling them to allow more time when they renew. HM Passport Office director-general Abi Tierney said: “It is vital those who may need to apply for a new passport do so now.”