Parenting

Kids are waging a reign of terror against their teachers and their parents.

We have seen an alarming amount of cases in the news recently of kids who assault their teachers with the rest of the class chanting in support.

I'm working in a paediatric trauma unit at present. Not a day goes by that I'm not shocked and saddened by the type of cases I see. Apparently the community is breeding a type of youngster who is entirely wild and ungovernable.

Tween boys rape little girls and threaten to murder them if they tell. An eleven year old is stoned by his nine year old brother while their parents look on. School boys gang up and bludgeon a vulnerable mate till he lapses into unconsciousness from a brain bleed.

The adult example offered to the children is of neighbours from opposing gangs shooting at each other across their front yards. A toddler who happens to be playing outside in his front garden gets caught in the gun fire. His little body takes a shot and he collapses.

Parents leave their four year old to play next to the high way, his only supervision being that of a couple of five year olds. He then, predictably, runs out in front of a passing vehicle and gets run over. 

The parents live out their time oblivious to the value of life, so they don't respect the value of their children's lives and they don't teach them to respect life as a gift from God. 

A two year old is left in the care of a seven year old while the single parent has to go bail out the elder son from prison. While unsupervised, the seven hear old attempts to bath the two year old. He proceeds to overturn boiling water from the kettle onto himself. Not knowing what to do, he goes to his room where his parent finds him hours later, crying from the second degree burn wounds he sustained.

I don't see discipline. It seems that parents have as little control over their toddlers as they have over themselves. I hear parents promising their offspring a wide variety of treats: chips, sweets, fast food and toys to placate them into sitting still and cooperating with the doctor or nurse trying to help them. That never works. They don't respect their parents because the parents do not fulfill a worthy parenting role in their offsprings' lives. 

It breaks my heart to hear a small kid ask to stay in hospital longer when we are ready to discharge him, because "it is nicer in hospital than at home".

My opinion is that this nation's children are lost. They yearn for guidance and protection. Lacking that, they do what comes naturally to youngsters in any of the animal kingdoms: they copy the examples they see in adult society and for the rest, act out. Kids seek attention and leadership in any way they can.

Schools are blaming parents and parents are blaming teachers. The media blames society. We need to realize that we are society. All of us put together is society and none of us can exclude ourselves from the effect our actions have on our world. Our children are the most honest reflection of ourselves. No child picks up a stone or yells out a swear word all of his own accord. They live by example.