The upbringing of today's children in Tanzania

THE heading above actually implies early training of our children. In other words, it is the way in which somebody has been brought up, or trained and educated early in life. Afterall, the background of an adult matters as far as he/she was brought up, reared or nurtured by his parents during childhood and enabled him to attend a good school and complete his basic education.Therefore, parents should be urged to take care of not only their own children, but also those children, who are not theirs. Being a good parent is not only a gift to your child, but also a gift to the whole society, particularly in Tanzania today.Parents must have the courage to say 'No' to their children who misbehave or drink alcohol, smoke hashish, cannabis or cigarettes, use drugs and so forth. In which case, a 'collective disapproval' should be a powerful tool in regulating behaviour. It is also important for parents to intervene when they see other people's children behave badly. This means that at least every parent has an obligation to say something if children he sees are misbehaving. Suppose we are met by a volley of abuse then other adults have a duty to intervene. We do not want to live in walk-on-by society. Most of our children have the most quality of life in this developing country. The authority or Parliament at large has to reform the law accordingly on child-maintenance so to compel the relevant parents to stand by their responsibilities including disciplining their children.It seems that some of the parents are completely incapable of getting to grips with the challenges today’s families are facing, both economically and socially because of poverty or joblessness.Of course, much more investment is needed in education for the sake of our children today, who need quality education to become good and law abiding citizens of tomorrow. In 2009 we were all excited by the government’s ditermination to eradicate children’s ignorance and the prevalent poverty.Tackling poverty generally should be the great promise of the government, but the world economic crisis today leaves the country with the pangs of poverty rising. The figures have gone up because of temporary blip in the income of self-employed and the impoverished society.Some people argue that many of this country’s problems can be traced back to the collapse of the relationship between parents and children and between adults or call them old men and young people or youths. In our society, we should not expect a kid punishing an adult person.The society has the duty to tackle malaises including binge drinking and the unacceptable rate of teenage pregnancies. How can we expect young people to act responsibly in this developing nation when so many of them are hopelessly drunk?Another appropriate example; how can girls - after only children themselves - be expected to bring up children effectively? This must be a problem for everyone of us! Not even for the feckless fathers and teenage single mothers.We ought to accept responsibility for our own children and for the way the young pleople are growing up now, who will be the future leaders and loyal citizens of this nation.Also, our respective religions should as well be responsible for teaching the society’s children good things and that wedlocks or marriages should be taken as that cement which can bind and hold society together.Parents of young children, who have been through a wedding ceremony to which we normally contribute financially and in kind, are hundred times more likely to stay together than those who have not.Consequently, if we observe the acceptable marriage systems properly, there is a possibility in future to deal with rising crimes. On top of that we shall create a better disciplined nation, which will be free from the current vices being perpatrated by existing evils dominated by prevalent joblessness and abject poverty.