Parents, be your child’s friend

During School Holidays; Some of the children spend their time watching television while those in villages up country are occupied with domestic chores.
Most parents and guardians leave the housemaids to care for the children. This has exposed some children to continued harassment or mistreatment in many forms but mostly verbal abuse.
Some of the children who are victims choose to hide this truth from the parents or working guardians.
They always fear the consequences in the absence of their parents, who are rare anyway. Some of the children therefore never enjoy their holidays at home. It’s a place of terror.
Some parents in urban areas send children to spend holidays with relatives or friends up country. The reasons for this are numerous, including the promise of food supply in villages. Some of the parents genuinely send the children to their native home so that they can learn about the culture or their mother tongue.
All these are sound reasons but some of the children have fallen prey to abuse because of the absence of attentive guardians.
Instead of ensuring that children sent to them are safe, relatives and distant friends mind their business – some of them do not have children or are elderly grand mothers and fathers with the will to protect the children but physically week to do so.

It is important for parents to be friends with their children. Children have stories and fears to share when befriended. Adults can easily pass advice to children when they are friends and this could easily stop some of the harm that could reach the children