Some residents of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, have raised concerns over the trending erotic dance styles displayed by children at public functions, saying it negates good morals.
The residents, who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria, on Friday, attributed this to children’s unfettered access to inappropriate various media contents, especially the ubiquitous social media.
They argued that the overwhelming presence of social media had largely made good parenting very difficult as they mostly do not monitor the types of website they browse or even television programmes children often watch.
Julius Okonofua, an ICT entrepreneur, told NAN that parents face an uphill task in their bid to protect their children from imitating ‘queer and indecent’ traits associated with some celebrities on some social media platforms and television.
“It is hard to protect children from copying all these things because of peer influence; parents are not in schools or other gatherings where these children teach themselves new things.
“I am aware that some parents are lacking in the home training department, but most available media contents out there, are not helping as well,” Mr Okonofua said.
Abigail Oyewole, a businesswoman, told NAN that some parents do not chastise their children when they misbehave because “they do not want to be harsh on them’’.
“When you ask some of them why they allow their children to do certain things, they tell you that their own parents were too harsh and that times are changing.
“They want their children to be free and do not want them to be inexpressive; so they give the children the freedom to express themselves in various ways,” Mrs Oyewole said.
Also, John Ayade, a medical practitioner, said that good parenting skills were deteriorating especially among some `modern day’ parents.
“Some of them are adopting western lifestyle when it comes to bringing up their children without taking into consideration the peculiar nature of our culture and value system,’’.
“Some children hardly greet their elders when they come in contact with them; they lack respect for elders;
“You cannot reprimand someone’s child when he or she goes wrong because the parents might see such action as interference,’’ Mr Ayade said.
For Veronica Ayodele, a nurse, parents were too preoccupied with pursuit of material things that they did not notice their children’s inappropriate behaviour most time.
She said: “They are always doing something to make more money and so they do not see when everything goes wrong.
“Most of these young parents are in competition with one another on who can provide the most luxury for their children; they equate good parenting to provision of luxury and forget teaching of the morals,” Mrs Ayodele said.
In his contribution, Adura Daramola, a social psychologist explained that children are influenced by the environment around them and this forms the bulk of their behaviour.
“From the professional angle, a child’s environment plays major roles in the development of character and behaviour.
“Environment is any space that has impact; the school, home, places of worship and even the town. These days, media has also become an environment as it is a virtual space.
“However, the parents have the biggest role to play as they have the power to control how the child is exposed to these environments more than any other persons,” Mr Daramola said.
Mr Daramola advised parents to strive towards balancing the activities that go on in the children’s environment.
He described parents as “the greatest character moulder’, judging by the power and influence they possess to make or mar.
NAN
