The Sunday News
Raisedon Baya
ONCE again the school holidays are upon us and as with many of these holidays parents always find themselves at sixes and sevens trying to make sure their children stay focused and in the right path.
Just this past week there was an uproar on social media about children behaving badly as more than forty were arrested in the city centre for drunkenness and public nuisance. There are so many stories about our children misbehaving during holidays. Remember the famous vuzu parties and sex orgies. Just recently some four students were found holed up in some house and indulging in a bizarre sexual orgy. When these accidents happen the public is quick to scream and throw accusing fingers in all directions. I believe as a community we need to start acting before our children are in trouble. Each and every one of us has a responsibility to create safe spaces for children.
As a community, and a city, where are the spaces for children to positively engage with each other? Where are the safe spaces for them to play while they are away from school? Long back we all used to scream youth clubs but the truth nowadays is that youth clubs are mere buildings, most of which are almost falling apart anyway. There are no meaningful programmes and activities happening in youth clubs to attract children nowadays. So let’s not blame the children when they get into trouble or make mistakes. They are children and are always going to make mistakes or get in trouble. Worse if there are no safety nets for them.
Recently, debating with friends, I said as parents we must look at our behaviour first before we condemn our children. What do we do for leisure? How do we spend our free time? Is drinking and burning meat not our favourite pastime? Our children watch us and when they are alone they imitate us. They drink like their mothers and fathers. They smoke like their uncles. They indulge like they were born in Sodom and Gomorrah. We have, indirectly or otherwise, told them it’s fashionable to do so. So why cry when they walk half the city centre drunk? Why scream and curse when your daughter parades her nakedness in from of strange boys? Let’s not forget that the problem didn’t start with drinking or sex orgies. The problem started with children being bored and having nothing positive to occupy them. This is where sports and arts come into play. I will not speak about sports on this column. There are many who are qualified and can do that on other platforms. My interest is in the arts and what they can do to help positively develop our children.
There are a lot of opportunities for the arts and the arts sector in the current set up. Providing alternative entertainment for young people. It’s school holidays at the moment. I haven’t seen anything for families to attend together. I haven’t seen arts shows targeting children and young people. I haven’t seen short art courses. And certainly nothing for children except holiday lessons. And beer parties! There must be deliberate arts and culture programmes, funded by both local and national government, whose main objectives are to keep our children positively occupied during school holidays. And even when schools are open. The same for sports. If national or local government is failing to provide those safe spaces and positive activities for our children then the onus falls on us parents to make sure those spaces and activities are available for our children. If we don’t act then we have no one else to blame but ourselves.
So as parents our first task is to demand that national and local government create safe spaces and recreation activities that positively impact on children’s life. If that fails the second task is to create the spaces and programmes ourselves.
