20 Nov 2023

Parents have been implored to assist in nurturing and moulding their children.

Speaking at a parent-child panel discussion on the upbringing of children in Mulambakwena on November 18, guidance and counselling teacher at Zwenshambe Junior Secondary School, Ms Nandi Willie said corporal punishment as a form of correction was unsuitable for the current generation of children.

 Ms Willie urged parents to speak to their children in the right tone and under comfortable conditions. She said parents should not place the burden of child upbringing on teachers, adding that parents had a significant role to play in teaching cultural and societal norms and values to their children.

She noted that in Tswana culture if a child displayed bad manners people would ask who were the parents and what kind of household he/she came from.

She pointed out that the computers that children received at school were not the cause of the current challenges, and that parents should understand the purpose of the gadgets.

Ms Willie also said parents should know that in their absence anything could go wrong.

She also noted that dating was not a new phenomenon and that parents should be informed about their responsibilities and on issues such as HIV/AIDS, teenage pregnancy, condoms, abstinence and others.

She said studies had revealed that most teenage pregnancies were not caused by other pupils but outsiders and elders, adding that there was also incest.

She advised parents to stop abandoning their children at boarding schools, saying they should visit and buy them toiletries. The panel discussion was held under the theme; Molemo Kgang, and covered topics such as love, sex, dating and teenage pregnancy.

The social welfare officer for Zwenshambe/Mulambakwena area, Ms Lechani Peter said parents should know their children’s friends and who they were always speaking to on their cellphones. She said they should give children all the necessities, but not to spoil them.

Ms Peter’s also advised parents to teach their children that no one should touch their private parts or make indecent touches.

 “Guide and teach them slowly step-by-step before it happens,” she said, adding that  it could start at four years. ENDS