A recent study commissioned by the National Commission for the Promotion of Equality (NCPE) suggested that school opening hours and the length of summer holidays should be revisited, which, needless to say, generated heated opinions and myopic positions.

However, many of these comments tackle only one aspect, failing to see how important it is to understand what has changed and to come up with new solutions to the present problems.

There is no doubt that school opening hours and the length of summer holidays are an important consideration but they are by no means going to solve the very complex situation which has crept up on us over the decades.

We need to consider many other factors and the unintended consequences of any changes.

We also need to re-establish our values and ask whether we are working for material gain at the expense of irreplaceable family time and our family’s mental health.

It is true that few women worked decades ago but it is also true that few of them had a driving licence, let alone a car. Grandmothers were the go-to child-minders but they can no longer do this if they are now working themselves. It is true that men went to work and paid for the family’s expenses but it is also true that some of them had to do overtime and work more than one job to make ends meet.

Other things have changed too. It is too trite to say that children are enrolled for extra-curricular activities because of their ‘aspirational parents’: Do sport, dance and drama limit our children’s experience or ensure that their childhood is not all about academic qualifications?

Let us keep in mind that children used to play outdoors with friends and neighbours after school, which has become harder and harder to do as open spaces shrink and traffic threatens every child crossing a road.

Teaching has also changed: the amount of input expected from teachers has changed considerably; if a child’s attention span has shortened, then this applies not only at home but also at school. Few teachers can nowadays get away with presenting the same dog-eared textbooks.

The study should generate a debate about the impact of having two working parents on children’s well-being, whether women going to work has resulted in less financial pressure on men but without the sharing of domestic duties.

The study did not mention staggering opening times for schools in any particular area and whether this would help alleviate traffic at peak times. Surely that should also be part of the equation.

And there is the unequivocal economic reality of households that have no choice with regard to double incomes, which must also be factored into any solutions.

Yes, we need to discuss the difference between having children go to extra-curricular activities within walking distance as they did in the past and having to spend ridiculous amounts of time in traffic today going to and fro.

The study about school hours came only days after an NCPE conference heard about the need to reverse the falling birthrate, which currently stands well below the replacement rate.

We cannot have it all. We cannot expect families to have more children, parents to work harder, teachers to keep up standards and children to have time… to be children.

We should welcome every attempt to challenge the status quo and to think long and hard about the unsustainable situation we have now.