Nowadays the concept of parenthood now depends on the ability to give birth to a child, which is not suppose to be so. There are specific life lessons and principles every parents needs to have undergo before being a parent. The concepts of "baby" parent is derived from the fact that a lot of youths who are not up to the age of being a parent but due to their luxurious items and properties they own, they are of the mindset that they have what it takes to be a parent, Does wealth make you qualified to be a father or a mother?
A video went viral some months ago on social media which led to a lot of controversies among men and women in the society, in the video, a father is seen smoking and also giving it to a child who is not more than 3 years old of age, the mother is the one making the video and laughing in the background. There was also another video that went viral on tiktok, in the video a guy who is identified as the father of the female child being displayed in the video, the father was engaging in an act that he might consider as an act of love but to the viewers it felt like child molestation due to the child's age.
This brought a lot of worrisome thought into my mind and I kept on thinking, what kind of a future could such children have especially in a country that pays less attention to child abuse in the society. A child does not have the ability to choose who his or her parents will be, this has made a lot of children to be subjected to immature attitude of some youths who are not qualified to be parents.
In the neighbourhood where I live, I saw a lot of children engage in improper activities despite living with their parents, a lot of them have gotten accustomed to the get rich quick syndrome which deprived them from the ability to engage in hard work. Firstly I thought, it can't be the fault of the parents entirely but parents have a significant role to play before such situation get out of hand, parents are the first agent of socialisation for a child. I have seen a lot of parents request for luxurious items from their children despite having the knowledge of illegal activities such child is doing to acquire wealth. What has parenthood become? is this what it means to be civilised? a lot of thought such as this kept crossing my mind.
I kept wondering what could be the way forward, how could the government or society regulate this improper parenthood in underdeveloped and developing nations. I know of childcare services in developed countries but in countries where there is less investment in such child care services what will be the fate of those children subjected to such parents. In the absence of child care services I believe the responsibility of ensuring a child doesn't turn out to be bad egg falls on the parent.
In the olding days, everyone in a community comes together to train a child in the sense that, if anybody notice a child is doing something wrong they take it upon themselves to discipline the child without having to worry about what the parent might say or they would report the atrocities the child is committing to his parents but nowadays we don't have such things any more, I will probably blame it on civilisation. Everyone is just minding their business and try not to get involve in other people's family drama. Which means the community vortex care that used to exist is no longer available.
Whose fault is it when a child commits a major atrocities in the society? If I'm to answer this from the traditional perspective I would say it is fully the fault of the parent. In my village, if a child should do something wrong in the community, they would locate the household of the child and hold his/her family responsible for the crimes the child has committed. This might sound strange but my people believe that who a child becomes in the future solely depends on the parents nurtured the child. So it is either the parents publicly disown the child or they will continue to pay for the child crimes.
But then, we are in a more modernised era. It is quite obvious that there are a lot of factors that could influence the outcome of a child despite the child being brought up in a good home. So if the child is below the age of 16/18, I would still blame the parents because I strongly believe most children under the age of 16/18 even to 20 years of age are still living under the roof of their parents. Which means the child atrocities is as a result of bad parenting but in a situation where the child is now within or Above 20 - 25 years old, you can't really call such person a child anymore. So whatever atrocities they commit is no longer the fault of the parent.
This write-up was inspired by weekly featured content titled "Whose fault is it?" in hive learners community.
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