There is too much child neglect in Barbados, Rhonda Blackman, head of the National Council of Parent-Teacher Associations (NCPTA), believes.
Blackman, supporting the views of Bishop of Barbados and Archbishop of the West Indies Dr John Holder, said yesterday that the lack of supervision in the home had led to promiscuity and obscene behaviour by some young people.
She lamented the lack of parental involvement in the lives of children.
“When we leave children in the care of others, sometimes they are not properly supervised and they are exposed to undesirable behaviour. They see more ills that they should be exposed to.
“When we shuttle our children between households and even put the children on grandparents, that is neglect.
“Yes, we want the extended family to play a part in the children’s lives, but don’t shuttle them back and forth. We need to recognize the impact we as parents have on our children,” she added.
Blackman fully believes that the home is the root cause of a lot of problems occurring among the youth.
She added that parents needed to be mindful of the fact that up to eight years old, the personalities of children take shape.
“Parents need to pay attention to the things they say and do around their children,” she said.
She noted that some parents even watched movies with sexually explicit scenes in front of their children, believing they were too young to take it in or even remember.
“This is wrong. Parents need to know better,” she stressed.
Blackman said parent education was also critical.
“A lot of parents have not created a special bond with children.
Too often some are just sperm donors [men] and earth suppliers [women]. We have to act responsibly.
We have lots of young parents and grandparents and we need to be educating them.
“We take it for granted that they know,” she added.
Blackman said the NCPTA might need to go back out to the districts to help educate, adding that unfortunately, the parents who should be attending parent-teacher meetings were not.
