DAY in day out, the youth are reminded that they are the future leaders of the country and a lot of emphasis are being put in projects to enable them become educated, fight poverty and live decent lives. Right!
With the government spending billions of shillings and efforts to address their challenges, parents and guardians must realise that first it is their responsibility to groom children, who would be patriotic and shun/loathe crime.
Precisely put-parents are a child’s first teachers and role models. They are responsible for shaping up the child’s behaviour and implementing positive values in them.
In this school of thought-parents who create positive home learning environments also understand that fostering character traits for kids is as important as academics and homework. They know that family values get passed from one generation to the next.
Although youths face many challenges that make them particularly vulnerable to crime, violence and victimisation, it is important to remember that, by virtue of their age, energies and learning abilities, young people are key agents of change in creating a better future and have great potential to advocate on behalf of themselves and their communities.
Now that schools are closed, it should be the responsibility of the parents and guardians to know the people and places, where their children frequent.
Parents and guardians should know that juvenile crime is not naturally born in children, but is largely due either to the spirit of adventure (peer influence) that is in them, to their own stupidity, or to their lack of discipline (which is also the role of parents to shape).
In this case, special attention must be paid to children and youths as they are particularly vulnerable to drug use, crime and victimisation, including gang-related crime, violent extremism and sexual exploitation. In efforts to prevent delinquent behavior among young people experts point to the effectiveness of developmental or early prevention (where parents and guardians come in). This means investing in the healthy development of children and young people, and to mobilise individuals, families, schools or communities to address the conditions that give rise to antisocial behaviour and crime before they appear. This is a collective role that the government alone can not manage, even if it pumps in trillions of shillings to address.
Again, parents should know that proper nurturing of children is their primary responsibility, because the values given to children and the type of training they receive from their parents seem to largely determine their future life-style.
In this case, parents help their children establish certain behavioral attitudes, and once established these attitudes are difficult to change or suppress. On this note, parents should know that once they instill antisocial attitudes and behaviours in their children (as a result of recklessness), such attitudes persist into adulthood; no society will be ready to bear with.
