Parental Delinquency
Parental Delinquency? Gone are the good old days when mom and dad were around
to teach their children about morality and the basics of growing up. Instead, we
see parents who have replaced caring and personal involvement with the purchase
of material goods. We see parents who are afraid to discipline their children
and who are afraid to set boundaries. We see parents who are afraid to hug their
children and be involved in their lives. A child's behavior shows the kind of
home he or she comes from. Parents are suppose to be role models, but what do we
find. Parents are neglecting their responsibility. Parents, who ought to teach
by precept and example, have fallen prey to the do as I say, but not as I do
syndrome. We as a society, often times fail to look at the root cause of many of
the adolescent problems being witnessed today. I watched a PBS documentary
entitled The Lost Children of Rockdale County. I found this documentary to be
very disturbing look into the lives of middle to upper class youth. Though the
focus of the program was sexual promiscuity, drugs, pornography, and alcohol,
but what I found far more troubling was the tremendous breakdown that exists
between the children of Rockdale County and their parents. This entire
documentary was full of houses that were empty and void of supervision and adult
presence. Some recent research on adolescent behavior has provided an insight
into factors that contribute to juvenile delinquency.
The relationships between
parents and children play a significant role in the social well being of the
children. Children who do the best, have parents who use both a great deal of
warmth and caring with their children and also exercise a high level of control
over their children's actions. High levels of warmth and control characterize
the form of parenting referred to as authoritative. (Teenagers in Trouble,
Gallagher, p.2) Authoritative parents are both firm and fair. Rarely did I see
this type of parent in the program. I thought that if I disciplined you, you
would run away was one comment made by a mother whose daughter had gone on a
drinking bing at age twelve, blacked out, and realized she had been raped when
she came to. Many of the parents documented were not able to connect with their
children and even when they did, they thought that just showing concern was
enough. A Father commented that he felt that he should allow his children to sow
their wild oats when they were young so that they wouldn't do it when they were
older. Just showing concern is not enough. Adolescents need guidance as well as
encouragement and they need to know that their parents, their relatives, and the
adult network in the neighborhood are all watching them, are all concerned, and
see their upbringing as a priority. (Teenagers in Trouble, Gallagher, p 3). I
could go on about the gross negligence of the parents of Rockdale County. This
documentary was an eye opening view not only of blatant unconcern by the parents
of this county but also the underlying breakdown of the American family. I
believe that the solution to juvenile delinquency is not more laws or greater
restrictions, for rarely do these interventions work. We need to have adults who
are continuously, visibly and actively present in the lives of children.
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