CARE AND RESPECT FOR CHILDREN IN THE FACE OF MODERN CHANGES

Résumé

In today’s world, care for children by their parents is seriously eroding, with many parents turning over the care of their children to either nannies or educational institutions. Unfortunately the abandonment of their responsibility as the primary caregiver of their children takes effect soon after the expiration of the compulsory maternity leave period. Most parents live their homes earlier before their children wakes up and comes back late when they must have gone to bed. Despite the role that parents play in caring for their children, the educational institutions as well as other institutions must not lag behind in complimenting the efforts of the parents as character moulders. The children in their hands are like the clay in the hand of the potter. He chooses and determines what shape he makes out of it. Modernity to the young folks means freedom to do whatever they wish because the traditional society was an old school. Would you put all the blames on them when they are left in the hands of nannies and to the mercies of foreign movies and peer groups? This research is about care and respect for children which by implication entails proper upbringing of the child in the fear of the Lord. Eph 6:4 says: Fathers, do not provoke your children to angers but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Col 3:21 corroborates the same view: Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged (RSV). The above admonition teaches that while providing care for children at least to forestall discouragement, they should also be nurtured in the fear of the Lord. The combination of the two responsibilities will produce obedient, respectful and patriotic children for a better society. The book of Proverbs, Prov. 22:6 instructs: Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old he will not depart from it. (RSV). Spear the rod and spoil the child is a popular assertion that connotes proper discipline when a child does wrong and the book of Proverbs asserts: A whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a rod for the back of fools. (Prov. 26:3).