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This is really horrific and the resulting pain and emotional trauma the parents and relatives are facing surely must be unbearable; and the grief would certainly be shared with the entire nation.
According to a report in this newspaper on Thursday, ‘Residents of Stewartville, West Coast Demerara, have expressed their anger and outrage following the death of a 23-day-old baby girl who perished in a fire on Wednesday night, when she was left home alone with her six-year-old brother.’
Villagers had told this newspaper that the parents of the children were in the habit of leaving them alone at home and now a precious life has been lost because of their indifference.
At the tragic scene on Wednesday night, many residents were moved to tears as they realised the baby was in the building engulfed in flames, and all they could have done was stand by and watch.
They had summoned the nearby Leonora Fire service on seeing the blaze, and the firemen managed to contain the fire to one building.
Herein lies the problem. While no one would want to further hurt the feelings of the suffering parents, the stark reality is that the death of the baby is due to poor parenting skills and this is not the first time such a tragedy has occurred.
The difference in this instance is that a 23-day-old baby has perished. Many, who are old enough, would recall that a of couple decades ago two very young children who were left alone in their home at Philadelphia, East Bank Essequibo, perished in a similar manner while their mother was at a friend’s home chatting away, only to return to a tragedy.
It is unlikely that a mother or parent who is equipped with proper parenting skills and the right mindset of the safety of her children would leave young children alone at home without adult supervision. In the Stewartville tragedy, unbelievably, a 23-day-old baby was left in the care of a six-year-old. To compound the problem, the six-year-old had access to matches which resulted in a tragic fire.
It is clear that proper parenting skills are lacking in many homes in our country because, apart from tragedies such as the one at Stewartvile, almost on a daily basis children are being abused and ill-treated by parents simply because of their ignorance of how to deal with children. The end result, in many cases, is that the children suffer from both physical and mental anguish and, as such, some desert their home and end up in even more physical and mental harm and even as juvenile delinquents. And we all are aware of the serious “fall out” with societal problems associated with juvenile delinquency.
Parenting is one of the most important challenges facing society, according to the British Medical Journal (BMJ). Good parenting skills can aid in deterring childhood accidents and illness, adolescent substance abuse and teen pregnancy. They can also reduce the risk of problems in adulthood and the next generation of children, according to BMJ. The important role of parenting has caused governments around the world to make it a high priority.
This tragedy and similar ones should therefore make us recognise and become more aware of the need to improve parenting skills in our society and this must not be the responsibility of only the government, but rather the responsibility of the entire nation.
Parents are the main guardians of stability in any society because they play the major role in moulding and nurturing the correct behaviour and attitudes in children, although they do not have the exclusive responsibility in this regard.
Improving parenting skills is even more crucial in the context of today’s more complex and fluid world characterised by so many distractions, many of which are harmful to society.
The lives of our children are too precious to have them destroyed in such tragic manner. We simply cannot allow these tragedies to recur. If we allow such tragedies to continue, then we would have been failing in our duty to humanity.
