Today, as I listened to David Akwetteh on The Diary on Luv FM, my heart bled out. Even after the program, I am still shaken by what was discussed.
A 13 year old boy has shot and killed two of his friends with a gun belonging to his father. Two siblings had also suffocated in their father's vehicle. Those were the topics.
As I listened in on the discussions, I couldn't stop wandering about where we as a people have gotten to. I couldn't stop myself from thinking about the numerous questions and alternatives that were pouring into my head.
In some few years past, these incidents would have been unimaginable in our part of the world. It would have been very strange even hearing about them, let alone, experiencing them.
Gone are the days when parents had time for their kids. In those days, families used to eat together and discussed issues as and when they occurred. Parents had time to sort and trash issues out with wards. Parents used to stroll with their wards to and fro school where it was necessary. Parents used to help their wards with their homework. Every child was the responsibility of every adult in the society just as every adult had the correctional role in the lives of the children.
Few years down the lane, everything is so different. In place of parents, we have televisions. Taking up the place of quality family time are various social media platforms. No one has the right to correct another person's child any more. If you see two children misbehaving, woe is you if you try to teach them the right thing because a parent or a guardian might come to fight you. Parents spend all their time making money. They leave the house when the children are still sleeping and go home after they have gone to bed. Most children pray for weekends to come so that they may see their parents only for them to be gone again to one social event or the other. Not with funerals on every Saturday and weddings or other church programs taking most of the time of most parents.
I am not against hard work or attending to other social events or even church. I am all for that. But my problem is: in the midst of all these things, where do we place our younger ones? Are the televisions and other electronic gadgets doing a good job playing parents with our kids? Why did we let go of our external family system for the nuclear family system that helped us all in the past even when we don't understand the practice?
These incidents might have been prevented with a lot of caution. For example, if this father had left the kids in the care of a family member, he could have attended to his business and not forgotten about them in the car. If parents have not been so absorbed in making money and buying video games and other stuffs for the kids, this could have been prevented. Kids spend so much time in front of their video games, do and undo most things in the game so much so that, they end up thinking same can be done in real life.
Like I said, I am not against all these. However, I have issues with overdoing them. I am equally aware that some people, including family members, cannot be trusted with our kids but some, and a lot more at that can be trusted.
I think it's high time we take a stand for our younger ones. If we put all our emphasis on money, we might end up regretting sooner or later. We shouldn't forget that, these kids are the future of our society and what a society it would be if all they know about is how important money is when compared with the family.
Better late than never. Today is the best time to start correcting our mistakes as a people.
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