Ah… another wonderful day in the hood. Drunk dad lets 8 year old son take the wheel? You go Charlie! And oh, what’s this? A cat fight organised by one of the daughter’s mother? You go girl! No. Nu-uh. These are just one of many behaviours caused by bad parenting and this is why I strongly believe all parents should be required to attend parenting classes before having a child. It is the most important job in the world and will be more effective if it complies with all parents.
There are just so many people that are having children for the wrong reasons with no regard for the child. Anybody can just sleep together and – there you have it. A child with a clueless mother and useless father that doesn’t know what to do with the baby! Take a look around our prisons are growing because of high crime rate, with young people between 18 – 24 committing the most crime and almost 50% being Maori. We are surrounded by alcoholics, drug addicts, homeless, abused and unwanted people who lacked the love, attention and the guidance they need. For the best interest of the children, parents should be required to attend parenting classes.
No matter how good a parent might think they are, there are always many was that they can unintentionally damage a child for the rest of their life. How to behave around children, how to speak to them, even how to reward a child. A parenting teacher says “most parents are shocked to hear how bad a job they have been doing even after a single class.” Many parents are clueless and don’t know what to do with the child. There are so many that cannot properly take care of their children and end up in foster care which can hurt the child in the long run. Most children spend the first 4 – 5 years solely with their parents. Though many do not remember, those first years of their life, but in reality, those years are the most critical for children’s mental development. I mean, there are so many things that influence how children see the environment, people, and how they see themselves. But with classes parents will be more informed with how important they are to their children’s development, they would see a change in the behaviour of children, teens, young adults and especially future adults.
With teens becoming parents before they are ready and even at the age of 20 something, they have never had the experience to handle a small child. Currently in NZ over 4000 teenagers give birth each year with over two thirds