Parenting: a serious business

By Oladotun Olumuyiwa F.

Raising a child should be a collective responsibility of both the father and mother, because there is more to parenting than just procreation or having kids of your own, it is a huge responsibility. It is demanding and requires a lot of wisdom. For many years, in Africa, Asia and some part of Middle eastern countries there has been erroneous opinion about parenting that raising a child should be left for the mother alone while the father works and provides for the family alone. This wrong view of parenting has brought about failures and high rate of waywardness among the youths today.
Hence, parenting in the most third world countries and even some developed society is fast becoming the number one challenge confronting most families this is because the world we live in today, is all about nothing but ‘rat race’ the world where everybody has to hustle for survival. It is even tougher when you live in the ‘concrete jungle’ in the city. It is a world where it is mandatory for both father and mother to work so as to make ends meet, make provision for the family and the upkeep. This urge for survival makes a mother who should be totally committed to looking after her kids go extra mile in making money so as to support her husband’s meager salary leaving their parental roles and attention for the nannies and house helps.
Today, there are so many ‘working mothers’ around us. These ‘working mothers’ leave home as early as 5am in the morning and return 6 pm or thereabout, making them a total stranger to their kids. They hardly know little or nothing about their children thereby their kids grow under the influence of whatever the house help teaches them. There have been cases where some house helps and babysitters sexually molested these kids.
Aside from these ordinary working mothers, there are some called ‘career women’. These set of women are usually married with children but their preoccupation is their career development. They are ready to pursue their career and get to the peak. This is done to the detriment of their family life and even their kids.
In all ramification, family is the microcosm of any society and when family values fail in any society, it becomes a ‘vicious circle’ and the aftermath has been associated to the increased social vices and moral decadence, armed robbery, prostitution, kidnapping and abduction, drug addition, rape and other social ills.
A child who is not well raised will only become a social misfit and criminal.
These social ills can only be reduced if family values are would be taken with all seriousness and not for granted. Also parenting should be put amongst the top priorities for societal development and crime free society.