Staff writer - Maureen Gordon
What caught my attention this week was the headlines in the newspapers about last summer’s riots in the U.K
It said last summer’s riots was a result of poor parenting, however this was only one of the reason’s among others: blame was laid at the advertisers for aggressive brand advertising, which put enormous pressure on young people to want the latest designer brands. Also at schools who apparently should work harder to help children with improving their literacy, as well as to help them realise their potential and prevent them making wrong decisions.
There is an old saying, ‘it takes a “village to raise a child”. In many respects that village no longer exists and we have moved away from the traditions of other people taking an active role in helping us to bring up our children. If we do, we can be seen to be interfering; you can’t tell me how to raise my children. When parents bring their baby’s to be blessed/christened in church, parent’s often nominate godparents, or witnesses usually trusted family friends. I am not sure where the tradition comes from. These godparents are supposed to act as substitute parents. But I think most godparents’ contribution to their god child nowadays is to remember them at birthdays and Christmas and nothing in between. Maybe the role needs to be revised.
I believe that Parents need to learn all over again to ask for help and to feel confident that it is ok to do so, that they won’t be judged. Maybe sometime the thinking is “I don’t want them to know I am not coping, or I will feel that I have failed as a parent. The fact is there are no blueprints for parenting, no manual. I know there are young people who have been brought up in what could be described as a “normal family” home but still make choices which may lead you to believe that they were not. I am sure there were some of these teenagers on the streets last August.
Photo courtesy alterinfo.net
Photo courtesy alterinfo.net
Training up a child in the right way, may mean that they may go away from what you have taught them. But they will have an opportunity to remember, recall what was good about their upbringing. Then they will have to make the decision to do what is right or not.
The bottom line is it seems that someone has to be at fault, someone has to be blamed. I believe that many factors may have contributed to the riots in our cities. Do you think poor parenting is one of them? What’s your view on what needs to be done to support young people and their families?
Let me know what you think.
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