“Positive parenting the way to go”

part of the group of students and parents who attended the debate and community engagement meeting

BY MUNYARADZI BLESSING DOMA

Positive parenting helps children to grow up as responsible individuals, as they deal with several challenges that threaten to disrupt them from realizing their full potential, a recent schools debate and community engagement meeting heard.

The debate was held in Mabvuku recently, between 5 Star College and J Wallace, during a session which was also attended by several parents.

The debate was on the positive parenting versus punitive approach, in addressing drug and substance use prevention and sexual and reproductive health.

The debate and community engagement meeting was part of the Population Solutions for Health (PSH) “The Strength is in You” to turn down drugs campaign, with support from the Embassy of Sweden.

According to the UC Davis Health Children’s Hospital, “positive parenting is about showing your children love, warmth and kindness.

“It’s about guiding children to act the way you want by encouraging and teaching them.

“It’s about helping children thrive to sending powerful message: You are loved, you are good, you matter.”

One parent, Amanda Muchekesi said, “I think this meeting was important because we were actually being told about how to take care of our children.

“Like in this case there are a lot of things that were talked about in terms of positive parenting. We heard quite a lot from the discussions which were held today, amongst the children and the parents and even from the debate.

“Because when the debate was held, I actually learnt that it is not good to pressure our children, we need to counsel them in love. We need to have openness but at the same time don’t pamper them too much because we still need to make sure that we give them good counsel so that they can grow up being responsible,” said Muchekesi, from New Tafara.

Another parent, Caroline Mandy Jimu, said the “session was quite good for the children because they were hearing the right information on how to grow up being responsible individuals.

“So if they really listened today, then indeed they can change, they can be better individuals.

“All the discussions were really important and even the debate because it touched on aspects which are good for our children, I really wish my own children were here because the information gained here is quite invaluable, so it is well appreciated.

“Our children need the best guidance, so we really need to have it for them and you will find out that as a parent you will end up saying that you leave all to God, because sometimes it’s really difficult to raise them well,” said Jimu.

Speaking after the session, Mike Mchenga, a Community Health Worker for PSH “Strength is in You” campaign said the importance of the Drug and Substance Use (DSU) session was meant to address the lack of information that had been noticed through the research.

“There is quite an information gap in terms of DSU issues, like in some case some of the members of the community don’t know the types of drugs that are in the communities.

“So you will find out that there is need for more awareness, like for the parents and the children.

“The debate and other discussions that were done here really showed the need for more awareness.

“Also we need to have our children to be aware of these issues from a young age, so we also realised that positive parenting is the way to go if we want to deal with all these challenges.

“Parents should not give up on their children so they need to explore the best ways to raise up their children,” said Mchenga.