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Due to the influence of television and social media, it has become increasingly difficult for parents of today to raise children the way they were raised themselves and in ways that ensure that the children honour their parents and have faith in their advice.
What has not helped matters is the breakdown of families and the extended family system that have left many youths at the mercy of social media.
However, many parents who frown on the behaviour of the children of today are also guilty of failing to lead exemplary lives. A story of a Harare man who caused a stir at a funeral of the mother of a boy that impregnated his daughter has been all over the media thanks to the video of the incident captured at the burial. While focus has been on the acceptability of trying to settle scores with the dead at their burial, there is also the issue of the boy having impregnated a next door neighbour.
Traditionally such close neighbours are considered family as they are the ones that look out for you, counsel your children and usually the children treat each other as brothers and sisters and even call each other such. However, it would seem such values are fast disappearing leading to such conflicts, and the children possibly copy from the parents, since close relations would make the children realise you are family.
Elsewhere in this issue we have a story of two teenagers from Gweru that did the unthinkable. The two neighboursa�� children got into a relationship and decided to take the relationship to another level by indulging in sexual intercourse. It did not end there.
Their choice of a love nest would shock even the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah.A� They decided to climb a neighboura��s roof where they had sex and woke up the owner of the house with their noises. One wonders what kind of a people this generation will produce when it is their time to parent their children.A� There is a need for a radical shift in the way we raise our children who are now exposed to much more damaging information than the previous generation ever handled at such a tender age.A� Some institutions, such as schools and churches, have tried to reach out to parents by organising sessions where parents are taught on social media and its effects on their children. For many parents, they believe their role is to buy their children gadgets that they ask for without necessarily understanding what they use those gadgets for.
Some of the things that the young people get involved in blight their lives forever. Take for instance, the stigma of having been caught having sex on the rooftop at 16, it would be worse if caught on camera and then splashed all over social media.A� Some of these things might come back to haunt those involved many years from now, destroying their careers and marriages. While we continue to urge restraint on the part of the youth, it is important for parents to understand that this age of information overload is different from their teen years, and that the children are both villains and victims of circumstances.
Villains in that they do not obey their parents as they believe social media addresses better the issues they grapple with and victims because the many signals from the information glut can be overwhelming for their developing brains and impressionable emotions.A� Our call to parents is for them to understand these dynamics and seek to understand the world that their children are immersed in when they stay glued to their phones, laptops and other such gadgets.
Online Reporter