29 May 2017

Botswana National Youth Council assistant programmes officer, Ms One Ramma has urged parents not to reject children when approaching them with sexual and social matters.

Speaking on a workshop the council co-hosted with Princess Marina Hospital in Tsabong recently,  Ms Ramma said opening up about such issues was a key element of good parenting.

By not speaking about sex, she said parents were not helping the situation as external forces such as social media and peers would make their children aware of such issues.

“Not opening dialogue about sex education to your children has no use because children are already knowledgeable about them from social media apparatus such as Facebook. In fact, your intervention will be crucial because you will be ridding stereotypes and misinformation propelled by some media organs.”

Good listening skills and high level of patience, she said were also crucial elements of parenting.

She highlighted that was imperative for parents to implement what she termed ‘door openers’ rather than ‘door closers’ in their everyday dealing with their children adding that approachability builds relationships and cements trust.

A pupil at Tsabong Primary School, Refilwe Jase highlighted that their learning experience was hampered by some parents who coerced them to babysit their young sibling whereas they (parents) go on drinking sprees. Another student from

Tsabong Unified Secondary School, Wame Maruping pointed out that when it comes to sex education, parents found it fit to treat such discussions as a taboo.

Maruping further revealed that parents were overprotective over them, a situation that prevented them from spreading their  wings and learning things on their own accord.

Regarding academic matters, she pointed out that as students, they were only afforded material support, adding that parents would leave crucial aspects such as mentoring and emotional backing to educators.

As a result, she challenged parents to understand desires  and problems of children, pointing out that learners deserved to be heard so as to improve their academic standing.

Parents on the day registered unruly behaviour of learners, unprecedented teenage pregnancy statistics, high indulgence in substance by youth as some of the factors that had driven a wedge between them and their children.

Some of them, acknowledged that communication with their children was lacking, a situation they vowed to look into provided they were given ample time to address the issue.

The one-day workshop was meant to give students, parents and key basic education stakeholders, the platform to share experience on how they can consolidate their relations. ENDS