ROMAN Catholic Archbishop of Kingston Kenneth Richards is urging parents to desist from pampering their children as he believes this could leave them less willing to conform to rules.

Richards, who was speaking at the National Day of Prayer held at the National Arena in St Andrew on Wednesday, charged that for this year, parents should be more assertive to ensure that their children will be more disciplined.

“We pamper them because we want to keep them. We [are] afraid not to give them everything them want. But we give them everything they want and we lose them. We have given up supervision of our children,” said Richards.

“We forget that children are minors, they must respond to our guidance and direction, but we make them manipulate us and it is them same one [who] go school and cause trouble. Then we go school and we defend them instead of putting them in their place,” added Richards as he added that these days there are children dictating to their parents

“The hairstyle, tight clothes, dem get good pants and by time you turn round it squeeze up pon dem foot and it short enough fi just drop down pon dem bottom. We need to do better parents because we have to understand the dynamics of changes that are taking place,” said Richards while he urged parents to respect the dignity of their children.

Richards also encouraged parents to grow their children in righteousness and set a solid foundation before they turn adults.

“Grow the children in the way of the Lord, if when them turn 18 they want to make whatever change, make dem do that, but make sure you laid the foundation for them. As we go into the new year, parents take charge of your homes,” said Richards.

“Too many of us know the violence producers, many of us know who have the gun, and we say wi nah say nothing because ‘Mi nuh want nobody come kill mi’. We need the nation of Christians to rise up against evil, against crime,” added Richards.