Parenting is failing children, not the state

THE EDITOR, Madam:

Jamaica is bearing the brunt of failed parenting, which is being blamed on the State. It is known that the home is the first and most important institution of learning – the institution that creates posterity for local, regional and international citizenry.

Problems are being created when children are left to be taken care of by external institutions – though these have resulted in successful outcomes, they are not the ideal.

While there is no stipulated manual on parenting, it is incumbent on every adult, who wishes to have and raise children, that they are taught the best principles and practices. These could be summed up in the following ways: honesty, truthfulness, emphasis on work, spiritual awareness, love of knowledge and respect for each other. Of course, the list can be expanded.

This year’s parent month theme, ‘Re-ignite the village’, is just a start to the multifaceted ways that the ‘bull can be taken by the horn’. All institutions are called to play their part – home, church, schools, etc.

I had the opportunity to share my views with various groups of parents in November and the most pronounced thought was that the reignition of the village is a concept of the mind. Only a changed mindset of the partner, children, home, society, country and the world we desire, will result in an ‘ideal Jamaica’.

A failed State is only the result of failed parenting – women and men who have children like guinea pigs and have failed at discipline, education, nurturing, as proper role models, at calling out wrong, and teaching them to be responsible individuals.

Failed parenting is the result of the glorification of crime and violence, covetousness, of a dunce culture, disregard for law and order and the cyclical nature of ‘suh mi bawn and a suh mi a tan!’

What a woe – failure is not final though, as there is hope.

EVERTON TYNDALE