According to recent state of Children Report by UNICEF, more than one hundred and sixty million children are infested daily with deadly diseases, including HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. This is an indictment of families on their inability to live up to their responsibilities.
While it is true that economic depression, with consequent fall in standard of living and poor healthcare delivery system, contribute to this unfortunate situation, it is equally true that carelessness, negligence and lack of sense of responsibility on the part of some parents and guardians sustain the downward trend. Some of the infections and deaths could be prevented through simple immunization, careful nursing as well as proper and balanced dieting.
Families are the centre of society and provide a stable and supporting home for people of all ages. This they do by upholding and reinforcing core moral and social values necessary to nurture individuals to become useful citizens capable of contributing in building a progressive society. Unfortunately, over the years, many families are no longer living up to these important responsibilities, following near collapse of the values and bond that regulate intra and inter-relationship within families and between families.
In some cases, collective family interest is subverted because of individual aspiration and desire, while sometimes there is outright manipulation by some family members for self advantage, which gradually eroded the structure and framework on which family roles function effectively. The sad consequences are steady increase in collapsed marriages and broken homes as testified by large volume of records in the welfare department of local government councils, on sick marriages and divorce cases in the various customary courts.
Again, unbridled quest for material wealth has completely distracted some parents from their primary rules in the family as they spend little or no time with their children, condemning them to the disposition of house-helps, who, in some cases, are in dire need of care and attention themselves. With lack of parental care and control, these children fall easy prey to physical and psychological abuse as they are exposed to social influences that negatively impact on their behaviourial pattern.
Today, children under the age of fifteen have easy access to pornographic movies and magazines because their parents do not care what they watch or read, so long they keep the children busy and allow them time to continue their mad rush for wealth. Is it any wonder then that today some of our youths go about half naked in the name of fashion or does one need wonder why sexual promiscuity and prostitution are becoming common practice among teenagers?
Families, as primary unit of socialization, are expected, among other things, to make efforts in giving children adequate training and equip them properly for their future responsibilities which must include sound moral and ethical orientation that will inculcate in them the zeal to appreciate dignity of labour and hard work as well as the pride and satisfaction of self actualization.
Again, the present threat of extinction of Igbo language from communication world is a pointer of failure of families to live up to expectation. It is common practice in many families in Igbo land to first teach a child a foreign language before he could even understand the rudiments of his mother tongue.
Similarly, the increasing number of beggars on our roads and streets is an indication of the weakness of family ties. Before now in Igbo land for example, the extended family system protected under-privileged family members from the harrowing effects of economic difficulties and did not encourage them to go beyond family compound for assistance.
Time has come to promote once again the cherished values that make family a special and indispensible social unit. Adult members of families should understand that exemplary conduct is the most effective way to inculcate positive behavioural principles in children. Parents who include alcoholic drinks as part of family daily menu should not be surprised if some of their children spend more time in bars and other drinking centres.
Most importantly, families should cultivate the habit of praying together at least twice every day because a family that prays together remains together.
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