Group advocates positive parenting to ensure healthy behavioural development of children

The Police Campaign Against Cultism and Other Vices (POCACOV), a police advocacy group, on Friday called for positive parenting to ensure healthy behavioural development of children and peaceful communities.

The National Coordinator of POCACOV, CSP Ebere Amaraizu, made the call while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Enugu on the role of parental support to aid in making children stay away from crime.

Amaraizu noted that “parenting is a serious business with huge responsibilities” and as such required dedicated attention and sound approach aimed at inculcating family standard, discipline and values on children.

According to him, parental support is keen to effective parenting as it will enable adults to discover the early warning signs and symptoms about child deviation from norms, values and discipline.

“This early warning signs and their discovery will enable parents to give necessary guidance that will enable children to grow from their mistakes and become meaningful citizens,” he said.

Amaraizu said that positive parenting requires a show of love, providing support, setting limits, teaching responsibility, providing a range of experience which will help in exposing children to critical and positive thinking.

“This move will strengthen children’s resilience against any approach or threat to be recruited into membership of organised criminal groups,” he said.

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He said that on the contrary, lack of parental support to children creates a vacuum which increases their vulnerability and consequently serve as a gateway and entry point to unlawful societies and criminal groups.

The national coordinator said: “Due to the emulative nature in children, there is a need for constant improvement on parent-children relationship.

“There is a need to offer adult guidance devoid of enforcement of consequences (authoritarian parenting) to help them explore their world positively for a functional community.

“Today, most children are exposed to vulnerabilities due to lack love, poor parental and child relationship, lack of care and adult guidance, among others, this helps to increase pathways to joining cult groups and criminal groups.”

Amaraizu, however, recommended that parents should make time to engage in sporting and recreational activities with their children.

Group advocates positive parenting to ensure healthy behavioural development of children