No strap, no slap
THE use of violent actions, such as beating, to reprimand children is being ruled out by United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean Jean Gough.
Instead, Gough recommended interventions such as parenting programmes, which she said would encourage positive discipline.
The UNICEF has been working in partnership with the National Parenting Support Commission, an agency of the Ministry of Education and Youth, to encourage better disciplinary actions.
“We are all under stress and I think that is what COVID-19 has also taught us — that stress makes parents act more violently to their kids, not knowing the harm sometimes that violent behaviour is going to do to our kids,” said Gough who was speaking to
Jamaica Observer reporters on Friday.
“You think you just did a [slap] but the child really didn’t just feel a slap; it made him or her not feel so loved. We believe in ways of discipline but again, there is a way to work with parents. It is not something we could change overnight. It is something we need to do with teachers — give them the tools, give parents the tools — and I think we will be able to see a better transformation. So I think we were even discussing with the prime minister that sometimes the society comes to accept these behaviours as normal because this is what they were seeing all their life,” she added.
According to Gough, several surveys conducted in different parts of Latin America have revealed that some children are of the view that violent actions imposed by parents are done out of love.
“The child believes that it is good that the parents beat them because they love them, because this is what they have seen. We want to transform that so the child really sees that he will do much better with positive [change]. We are still saying children need to be disciplined but we are saying that this discipline needs to help them grow. We don’t want them to be slapped,” she said.