03 Jul 2017

Children who grow up in a modern society need strong and effective family structures that will help mould their behaviour.

Of recent, bad manners and unbecoming behaviour among students have been of concern as they portray lack of discipline.

In an interview, Kgatleng District Council chairperson Mr Mpho Morolong said the time had come for parents to take responsibility of their children and build them to be responsible citizens.

He said he was concerned at the way some children behaved especially students who had rowdy behaviour.

He said he was of the view that if children were not disciplined at home, obviously their manners would be awkward even when they got to school.

Mr Morolong said parents should not leave the responsibility of guiding their children to teachers and play their role as parents.

The chairperson said he was worried that parents seemed to leave  child development responsibilities to the educational environment not knowing that they may copy bad habits from their peers.

He further said parents should not be afraid to deal with children who went out of the way and break societal rules and norms.

He believes that if parents could come together to address the challenges they are facing in bringing up their children, they can be assisted by local authorities and other professionals.

Mr Morolong said an effective family structure should be in place to come on board and mend the behaviour of the children.

He said extended family especially immediate uncles and aunts should not be left behind when raising children as they played an important role in moulding the behaviour of children.

He added that he was concerned that uncles were no longer taking part in helping discipline children as they used to.

Mr Morolong asked family members and their relatives to work together in helping develop a better child for the 21st century.

He said as long as parents failed to seek for help when trouble with children starts, they will not be able to control them without any intervention. Mr Morolong also said some students made temporary camps at Mochudi Mall after they knocked off from school and the things they did were an eyesore to the public.

He added that what he had seen was appalling and could not be condoned by any leader in the society.

He called on all parents to act quickly and swiftly to abate the matter before it got out of hand.

Mr Morolong said some were already doing drugs and mix undesirable substances in pursuit of pleasure thereby they ended up engaging in criminal activities which destroyed their future.

He urged students to refrain from such activities and focus on their studies so that they would pursue their dreams without any hindrance.

He stressed that it was important for all stakeholders in the upbringing of children to take their responsibilities to heart to help build better leaders of tomorrow. ENDS