Bad season for children (9)
I believe the answer is:
offspring
'for children' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'bad season' is the wordplay.
'bad' becomes 'off' (eg meat that's gone off is bad).
'season' becomes 'spring' (spring is a season).
'off'+'spring'='OFFSPRING'
(Other definitions for offspring that I've seen before include "Result" , "Child" , "progeny,issue" , "Kids" , "Young" .)