So apart from all that, a friend of mine decide to attack the PM of my homeland and laid squarely at her feet the demise of society and the state of youths in that country these days.  His statement “Malcolm called JFK’s death “chickens coming home to roost”..I heard the hypocrite cry on the news and was sickened..When you took away corporal punishment as Education Minister ..this was the catalyst to what we are dealing with today!! I lay it squarely at your feet….it has been said!!

To which I replied, “WOW!! Parents don’t play a hand in raising children? I’m not saying that there isn’t a shared responsibility, but to lay all the blame? seriously? Why not at the adults who prefer to be their kids’ friend than to discipline them? Children used to be afraid of their parents, now, parents are afraid of their kids. Let me ask you this, were you ever afraid to end up in the principal’s office? None of the boys I went to school with were, and actually were repeat offenders, and if we got hit in class by our teacher it was a joke. I think we were more afraid to get in trouble and have our parents brought in – it was our parents we feared, not the school.
There was a recent incident at my old high-school where a freshman student (aged 11-12) kid beat up his typing teacher. I was appalled to read some of the comments from parents saying it was the teacher’s fault cos she yelled at the students. With parents like that raising children, is there any wonder that kids are growing up without discipline? How many parents in ** monitor what their kids watch on tv? Or what video games they playing? Or hell, give their kids all the latest toys and gadgets, regardless of grades? You think we, our generation and older,ever got anything if we didn’t bring home all passes?

It takes a village to raise a child, but the parents need to come to the realization that they are villagers too and they can’t leave rest the responsibility of proper child rearing on everybody else’s shoulders, while they go and fete.”

Now I do not have kids. I have tons of nieces and nephews that I’ve seen grow up and becoming responsible, caring adults.  We’ve been lucky in my family, all of the kids have turned out well and are brilliant and are just really beautiful human beings.  I’m not just saying this because I’m prejudiced, but because it’s the truth.  My siblings have done a tremendous job raising their children to be educated, responsible, philanthropic, socially conscious, independent, and very self-confident.  Most of all they are respectful of their elders and while they will assert themselves and contribute their opinions, they do this with utmost respect and regard for their audience.

Granted, my siblings couldn’t have raised such kids if we, ourselves did not have a very disciplined upbringing.  My siblings have been able to straddle that line between discipline, respect and devotion for their kids, enabling them to be who they are.

Good luck and best wishes to all parents out there.  You have a tough job given society these days, but please, don’t expect teachers and nannies to raise your child. You assumed that responsibility when you gave birth.  Don’t shy away from it and blame everyone but yourself if that kid turns out to be a person that you don’t like.