Letter of the Day | Parenting crisis needs to be addressed urgently

THE EDITOR, Madam:

During the years that I wrote a column in The Sunday Gleaner, I frequently focused on the need to address the dysfunctional family structure in Jamaica. Nothing has changed since 2015 when I last wrote about our troubled family situation. I recall that in a townhall meeting hosted by TVJ, I recommended that in the same way that prenatal care is provided to mothers who are pregnant, that parenting classes should be linked to these sessions. A government official on that platform countered that the Government cannot be responsible for parenting. Yet here we are now, years later, with the police lamenting that it is poor parenting that is contributing to the increased crime in our society.

Do we realise that many of the mothers and fathers who are now having children were themselves not parented properly? Do we realise that they have no pattern, no positive role models that they can emulate? They grew up experiencing verbal, physical, emotional and sexual abuse as the norm. So, if we accept that this is their norm, then we need to accept that there must be a deliberate process to change this pattern by teaching parenting to these uninformed parents.

I was distressed at seeing the video of that little boy about four years old who is at school screaming, cursing at his teacher, and showing her ‘the finger’. I commend the teacher, because she did not shout at him, nor did she touch him. She spoke firmly to him, but he would not stop his behaviour. But I wondered what was his home setting? How was he being brought up? Where did he learn such behaviour at an apparently early age? Home? Community? We have sown to the wind, and we are reaping the whirlwind because of our neglect of deliberately teaching our people how to parent positively.

We need to urgently put such strategies in place to address this malady, otherwise the behaviour of generations to come will be worse than what we are now seeing unveiling before us.

ESTHER TYSON

Retired Principal