Kristen Gyles | Don’t turn children into beggars

Begging is a learned behaviour. Unfortunately, many parents insist on teaching it to their young children. Nowadays, it is not uncommon to see young children – girls and boys alike – approaching vehicles in traffic or at busy intersections, begging for cash.

If these children were sneaking away from home to beg money from strangers, we would be having a different discussion. But in many instances, the parent (usually the mother, since in many of these cases the father is nowhere to be found) is usually sitting somewhere in the distance waiting to see what the young child will bring back to the nest.

Do these parents know that what they are doing is illegal? Section 41 of the Child Care and Protection Act explicitly states that allowing a child to be out on the streets for the purpose of begging, is illegal. Worse yet, is that some of the most vulnerable children, many of whom are disabled, are the ones often being used in this way. It is nothing strange to see these children out in the hot sun, at the mercy of the public, either limping or wheeling themselves from car to car soliciting money. They did not send themselves out there. They are at the centre of their parents’ careless schemes to exploit them for monetary assistance.

HARD TO FIND ALTERNATIVE

Some people really do have a hard life, and this is not to diminish or downplay that reality. At some point, one can genuinely get to a point where it is hard to find any other alternative but to seek help – from strangers. That is understandable. However, parents who solicit help should do it themselves and stop sending out their children to do it for them in hopes that a cute little face will illicit more pity than theirs will. In case it is not known, not every stranger feels pity! Some verbally abuse these young children and in less frequent cases, the children are assumed to be neglected and are roped into all manner of antisocial and unconstructive activities. How much attention are we giving to this problem?

I personally know a family of mother and daughter who seem to have made a lifestyle of begging. It appears that the mother has been sending the adolescent daughter out to solicit funds from people within a popular shopping centre in Kingston. Almost every time I see the young lady, it is at or around the same spot within the complex. Although I know the family from elsewhere, I see this promising young lady within this shopping centre perhaps more often than anywhere else and almost every interaction starts with a request for money.

This is simply what she has been taught. She has been taught that the best way of getting money is to simply go around asking for it. Despite all the news reports of young ladies disappearing without a trace, being abducted and abused in various ways or being targeted by criminals, a mother is sending her adolescent daughter out in public in 2025 Jamaica to ask random people for money. The world is not particularly kind to beggars, and many young ladies, specifically, have found themselves in compromising situations because they have adopted the habit of begging.

WHAT HAS CHANGED

It is hard not to wonder what exactly has changed. Back in the day, it was normal to hear adults reprimanding children for even accepting things from strangers. Nowadays, begging seems to have become normalised. And, for clarity, the lifestyle of dependency is lived by people of all economic classes. It does not take years of observation to conclude that begging, for some people, is more of a way of life than a matter of necessity.

While those who beg on our roads are largely underprivileged, people who are more well off also beg. Some beg favours, jobs, awards and even friendships. They teach their children through their own lifestyles, that begging is normal and actually very rewarding. Meanwhile, people find them and their unbridled penchant for begging seriously annoying.

Some bad habits ought not to be given the courtesy of an intergenerational lifespan. Children ought to be raised without the baggage of their parents’ bad habits. Fortunately, all the behaviours we learn, can be unlearned.

Kristen Gyles is a free-thinking public affairs opinionator. Send feedback to kristengyles@gmail.com and columns@gleanerjm.com