Cheating the Children

We consider the wrongs during the last SK elections as very dangerous in moulding the character of the youth.

The greatest sin parents could commit against their children is to deprive them of the future. To be able to facilitate this parents provide their young with the bare necessities. Like everybody else, parents probably stick to Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

First we have the physiological needs. Since birth, our parents made sure we would be able to physically face the future. That is why we have been constantly monitored by them to make sure that we have enough if not an overwhelming supply of food, clothing, shelter and beneficial health services and products. It is very critical that children have to prepare physically.

The second are the safety needs. Sadly there are already parents who tend to overlook this need of their children. Today most youngsters feel insecure because they feel unsafe even in the presence of their own parents. Thus they turn to peers and other people for this need. Failure of parents to supply this need often has dire consequences.

This aura of safety generates love, affection and belongingness; which are the next needs. Children who feel safe with an individual or a group often develop affection for them. It would be difficult to detach an emotionally connected person from them, whoever they may be.

The fourth is the need for self-esteem. Let us acknowledge the fact that there are parents who do not realize that their only role for the children to achieve this need is to give them recognition for their own achievements. Parents who offer their children accomplishments on a silver platter are in reality depriving them of this need. Triumphs are hard-earned. They are not given away for free.

A youngster or any mature individual will never attain self-actualization, the last need, if all his successes were doled-out. After all, we can never be proud of something we did not work for.

So, for the parents who knowingly or unknowingly caused their children to commit transgressions during the last elections, you cannot possibly fathom the damage you have done to your own flesh and blood. In the end, it was your own greed that took over your love and care for your sons and daughters. If and when they grow up and miserably fail in their lives, they will blame no one else but you: their own parents.

We pray that there will be time to correct the blunders you have made and rescue whatever respect your children have left for you.

We say this because we have all been children once.

(Photo above from www.cfr.org)