Happy Families

In the middle of the 19th. Century, John Jacques II, in between inventing the games of tiddlywinks, snakes and ladders and ludo, came up with Happy Families. It was, in those days, a pretty straight forward business.
Miss Bun, the Baker's daughter was unlikely to have one in the oven nor would Mr. Bung the Brewer have been caught selling cut price lager to teenagers. They were, indeed, happy families.
Britain is now one of the nations that, with the tacit encouragement of government, has largely abandoned the family unit in favour of an arrangement more usually seen in the feral cat population.
The social benefits of this become obvious when a mother with a brood of children from a diverse range of fathers can afford to take a six month vacation in India on the benefits provided for her by the rest of the taxpayers. A social paradise indeed.
And other mothers apparently swap partners with the same regularity as they change their underwear, although, judging from the unsavoury pictures in the tabloid newspapers, this may not be all that often.
It's hardly surprising to find so many teenagers hanging about on street corners of an evening. If they went home, they would probably not recognise the man of the house.
John Jacques II would have his work cut out for him to re-invent his game in Britain today.