What kind of an example are the parents?

Have you heard young children shout obscene words as though they were their usual everyday vocabulary?

Have you seen children throw tantrums or shout at their elders as though it is an everyday occurance?

Have you seen children riding motorcycles without licences or crash helmets?

Well, I have and they are never pretty sights. In them, I see rough, uncouth, non-law-abiding people who would most probably one day cause a lot of pain and misery in this world.

The sorry part of it all is that parents are usually the culprit in this sad development of human character. Look deeper a little and we find that it is the parents who practice or allow such behaviour to materialise.

If children use vulgar words from young, they most probably; I give a small percentage to outside influence; come from a home where such words are common place.

Disrespect could only come about when parents do not respect others or neglect their children and allow bad influence to seep in.

As for those children who constantly break traffic rules, I would fault the parents first. When asked how they could allow their children to go around on motorcycles without a protective crash-helmet or a riding licence, many claim the bikes were taken out without the parents' permission.

If the riding of a bike without the parents' permission is a true excuse, then those parents ought to make sure the key to the bike is not available to the children. There are ways to do it. Furthermore, are these parents saying that they could not discipline or control their children, that their children have got out of hand?

Let me tell you an occassion when a friend met me in front of a mechanic's shop and was telling me about his insurance and road-tax renewal. Along came another guy who knew this friend. Upon being told what my friend was doing there, the man told my friend there was no neccessity of getting an insurance. Why spend the money? According to the guy, he had been going around on his bike for more that eight years without an insurance or a road-tax. The unbelievable part was his imparting this knowledge with some pride. Imagine that! No road-tax for eight years and the SHORT ARM of the law was unable to reach him! Should he knock down and kill a child or somebody, would he not just escape in order to save his own skin instead of seeking help for the injured? And the injured could die without immediate medical treatment!

Just imagine what kind of a person would break the law and consider it nothing the risk of having no insurance. I would consider such a person irresponsible.

What kind of an example would such a parent be to his children? No wonder we have so many reckless 'Mat Rempits' or 'road-devils' committing all kinds of illegal acts on our roads, graduating slowly to crime. There would be injuries and deaths. And when these young people die, what is the cause? It is the negligent parents.

Yes, such negligent parents allow things to deteriorate and worsen to such a degree that the problem has become too much for them to handle. It most probably started as something small, a joy ride perhaps. Then, there is the dangerous parental pride upon seeing their young child's ability to handle a bike, even though awkwardly. Convenience could also be a factor; getting children to run errants like buying sundry goods from a nearby shop; fetching the purchase quickly on a motorbike. Indiscipline leads to giving in to demands. Soon, the use of the motorbike is an acceptable occurance.

Did these parents ever think of safety? Can young minds be matured enough not to allow the impulse to speed overcome them? I know of at least one case, my own class monitor, where death came due to such speeding as a way to show off.

I was sad when I heard how the driver of the lorry, he crashed into while trying to overtake it as an oncoming car was approaching, was so mad with his behaviour that he spit into the young boy's body. The right or wrong of such accidents is not for me to consider. I did not see it happen. I merely heard from other students.

Do we want children to die this way even before they had the chance to be matured enough to have some control over themselves? We, as parents, are responsible to bring them up correctly. It is the most important duty in the world.