I was driving home today, and I noticed quite a number of cars parked on the left and right of the road. It was 1:40pm, and I my best bet was that these cars belonged to parents. I asked myself “Why are these cars here? Wasn’t there a rule which says parents are not allowed in the school compound to wait for their children?” Ahh.. In fact, my school has a proper drop-off place located less than a meters outside of the gate. It’s roofed, cemented, and is about 50 meters long. I bet it should be enough for parents to wait for their children.
But here I see, about 10 cars, cheap and expensive parked on the side of the road, in the school compound, making the road as narrow as it already is. Some parents even go the extra mile by parking at the corner of the road. Yeah, they are just ‘brilliant’!, and you wonder where children these days get their ignorance and attitude.
As role models, parents should be given a good share of blame if their child misbehaves. If you watch Nanny 911, you’d realize that over the episodes, the nanny keeps on stressing that the parents are the ones whom influence their children the most. Lets not talk about when the child turns 18, because that’s when they start to make their own decisions.
Anyway, if I could relate parents and the lack of discipline among children these days, I would just point out how some parents in my school behave when they ignore a simple rule like “No waiting in the school compound“. These parents show indiscipline in front of their children, and I believe will stand up to defend their actions. This directly plants the thought of “It’s okay to break rules” in the child’s mind. Nonetheless, they forget that small things will get bigger, like a small flame left burning without control… and before they know it, it’s too late to do anything.
Co-incidentally, I read this special report on ‘School of Terror” in The Star this morning, and while I do not blame the teachers and the community in the report, I do put full blame on parents. Yes, the parents may be well off, and most probably the parents are not gangsters, but the parents are at fault of failing to give proper parental attention to their child, hence allowing their children to roam around and mix without boundaries. When this happens, we do tend to pity the parents, but if the parents cared to mind their child’s life, I bet these problems could be avoided. Ya, money is one thing, but kids must have a fair share of attention when they are young.
… and while I am at it, people ask why teacher’s children always come up better (not all the time, but frequently).. Well, I can say that teachers know of this problem (neglecting children), and always give their child the best attention, and at some point being very strict. Unfortunately, with the increasing work load in schools, teachers are forced to have less time with their families, leading to their child being also neglected… and ending up just the same with the rest nowadays.
