Parents who say they are unable to manage their very young, unruly children, have been receiving very little sympathy from some professionals in the fields of Child Care and Law Enforcement for some time, and now, Minister of Health and Human Services, Hon Anthony Eden, has joined the list.

In an uncharacteristically forceful manner, Mr Eden recently showed intolerance for what seemed to be a pattern of parents declaring themselves helpless in controlling very young children, and wanting to immediately hand children over to local Child Care or Remand institutions.

Speaking at a Media Briefing by Cabinet Members on 14 July 2006 Mr Eden said, "Parents go into Social Services with their six-year-olds and don't know what to do with them. Give me a break!"
Mr Eden is not the only professional in the field that has his eye on parents as Cayman tries to address what he calls the "complex issue" of young people who participate in "offending behaviour."

These professionals now also have their hands full with addressing Cayman's need for on-island, safe treatment facilities, which would be an alternative to juvenile detention.

For Child and Family Services Director, Deanna Lookloy, some parents are not living up to their end of the bargain.

Speaking with Cayman Net News, Mrs Lookloy said that for some time now, there has been the problem of parents who turn to Child and Family Services for help but still don't comply with the advice and instructions offered.

"The Department's Social Worker is part of a programme that involves the parent and the child but invariably, there is a honeymoon period, during which the parent is doing what we propose," she said.

"However, after a short while they fall away. Some time after that we see the parent and the child back in our offices."

Mrs Lookloy's focus on parents facing their share of responsibility with correcting children's errant ways is also based on the Department's efforts with the Islands' National Parenting Programme (NPP), which began in the middle of last year.

The programme - through the intense media coverage - gave ink, air and voice to problems parents faced with children, and solutions for handling them.

It was through this programme that professionals' intolerance for parents who were abdicating their responsibilities was first heard.

Police Constable (PC) Everton Spence, of the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service (RCIPS) Community Policing Department spoke at the first NPP meeting in late October 2005 and called for, "stricter measures to deal with parents."

He said,  "It is not the job of the police to parent your children. (Parents) have lost a grip and if there is no community park for them to play then they should not be on the streets."

Speaking at two meetings less than a month after that, both sets of presenters placed the blame with parents.

Marie Martin, Principal of George Town Primary School, speaking on 10 November 2005, said, "The problems we have in Cayman today... have to do with poor parenting."

Speaking at a North Side NPP session, Police Constable Lenford Butler, said, "We have many problems facing Cayman society today including drugs, violence, children having children, child sex abuse and so on. Yet there is a problem bigger than all these, and it is the absence of the right kind of parenting."

In December 2005, parents even got tough on parents with one parent saying, "We have to help these officers with our children. They are not their children they are our children. Where are these parents? You can't expect officers to do our job," after which, there was applause from the residents and the officers.

To get parents to face their responsibilities some have even turned to the Islands' laws.

Late last year, a resident, who identified herself as a teacher, said the law should be brought into the picture.

"We should look into the Juvenile Law for sections that deal with the care and custody of children and what can be done with parents who neglect their responsibilities in this regard," said the teacher.

Mrs Lookloy - a chief field professional - has also said the law will play a part in this issue.

In February this year, speaking with Cayman Net News, she revealed that work was underway with the Children Law and simultaneously issued a warning that "rogue parents" who regularly do not comply with Social Workers' plans for counselling and other measures, will be "dealt with by the law."

Speaking with Cayman Net News again on 25 July 2006, she said that the Children Law was still being worked on but hoped that there would be additions to it, and the Law's Regulations, that would tighten the reins on parents.

She explained that Community Care - a parallel Child and Family Services organ - in the UK had shown that mandating parents, through the Children Law, to be involved in Parent Programmes, had helped to improve children's behaviour.

She underscored the importance of requiring parents to obtain parenting skills, and not abdicate their responsibility, when she revealed that parents had been bringing in young children to Child and Family Services for many years.

"From as far back as twelve years ago I was seeing four and five-year-olds coming in. Some parents just don't have the skills," she said.

One resident - who agreed with the need for stronger parenting - opined that children now learn more about bad, rather than good things.

"A lot of these youth can't identify with Nelson Mandela or Jim Bodden. They know more about the gangsters in their rap songs," he wrote.

Yet another resident who agreed with the parenting focus said, "Adults speak to children as if they are no longer children." However, the possibility that a parent may need professional input with a child has been pointed out.

Asked if a parent should automatically feel that she could handle her child because it may be only four, five or six years old, Psychiatrist, Dr Marc Lockhart, speaking with Cayman Net News said, "I agree with the Minister and his focus on parents assuming more responsibility with their children.

"However, there is a point at which professional evaluation may be needed. But school counsellors or therapists can give that input, to help ascertain what is purely a behavioural problem, or whether there is a serious, underlying genetic problem that has to be treated." Dr Lookloy, speaking with Net News on 25 July confirmed that Cayman no longer had any children at the highly questioned, expensive, Tranquility Bay facility in Jamaica.

She corrected previous information on how children were sent to such facilities - whether here, or abroad.

"Social Services only makes recommendations to the courts. The court has the final say," she added.

Even with his focus on parents, Mr Eden also recently spoke about reform facilities for the young.

"The Ministry is currently working with the Chief Secretary's office on ...addressing the needs of young people.

"The solution is a multi-faceted one and involves both residential and non-residential treatment rehabilitative programmes. Some residential programmes currently in existence have to be supplemented."