Parents need to work together
The National Parenting Programme workshop.
Friday, September 2, 2005
As parents and children prepare for another academic year, organisers and
participants in the National Parenting Programme, (NPP) continue to build
links with parents, churches, schools and Parent and Teacher Associations,
(PTAs) to promote responsible and effective parenting skills.
“Attend and become involved in your child’s PTA because children tend to
learn better when they know their parents are actively involved in the
learning progress,” advises NPP coordinator Debbie Webb.
“It is vitally important for us to show how much importance we place on our
own responsibility as parents, especially by investing time in our children.”
The parenting movement has included a workshop to prepare district
trainers; the publication of educational materials, and preparations to
address parents and teachers at PTA and Home Sschool Association (HSA)
meetings through the Islands.
The NPP programme plans to focus on parents’ strengths and build on what
they have achieved with their children. It also aims to build parents’ self
esteem and confidence so that they can meet the varied needs of their
children.
“We want to help enable parents/guardians to practice positive parenting
skills with their children, regardless of age,” Ms. Webb adds. “An important
method of achieving this goal is to become very actively involved in your
children’s education and to support their respective schools.”
She further encourages parents to form networks to support each other; to
be active in extracurricular activities; to help children with their homework
and study assignments; and to seek help from others if needed.
“These are important methods of maintaining and developing the security and
stability that all children need to develop their intelligence, character and
personality, and become productive adults,” Webb concludes.
Within the district teams have been developed and some members who have been
formally trained in workshops, earlier this month, are now being fully
activated.
During a recent meeting with West Bay’s Parent-Support Group, Ms Webb
fine-tuned the action plan, and heard further concerns from group members.
Similar meetings are ongoing throughout the Cayman Islands.
Referring to neglect and victimization in the home, group members noted
that most common problems involved meeting basic needs – from breakfast before
school, to supervised activities on evenings and weekends, as well as verbal
abuse.
“We can no longer tolerate negative actions against children. We have to
build family relationships, including effective discipline techniques,” said
Ms. Webb.
The group also spoke of the social welfare system being increasingly
abused; of the need to return families and neighbourhoods to being accountable
for meeting the needs of each child; and of the importance of these new
attitudes being instilled into parents, rather than being legislated. “We’re
here to help, but also to encourage parents to adopt new and improved ways of
parenting,” said West Bay group member Jenny Manderson.
Participants discussed many issues from the mass media, to the need for
more churches to offer after-school programmes, and the business community to
make long-term commitments to such efforts.
On the issue of correcting the mistakes of the current generation of
parents, the group acknowledged the difficulty of ‘teaching children what we
were not taught.’
West Bay Social Worker Geneveive Tomlinson encouraged the team’s approach
of, “Assisting parents first, then challenging them to do better, before
holding them accountable for negative actions.”
To become involved, and for more information on the National Parenting
Programme, call 949-0290 or 925-5350.
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