Dear Editor
AS parents and caregivers, we are to ensure that our children have the best upbringing and experiences so they can have a good future and achieve their fullest potential.
Therefore, parents and caregivers must aim to create and maintain a good home environment in which children are happy and free from violence and abuse; where children can play and share their dreams and have a good relationship with their parents or caregivers.

A child’s experience of attachment with the adult in their early years is of critical importance to shaping the individual they will become as a teen and adult. Attachment theorist, John Bowlby, (1969) indicated that attachment is a “lasting psychological connectedness between human beings.” It is an emotional bond with another person, which he believed that these earliest bonds formed by children with their caregivers have a tremendous impact that continues throughout their lives. He suggested that attachment serves to keep the child close to the parent or caregiver.

This strongly indicates that parents are best placed to take care of their children and that the early bond that is developed between the child and parents will support the child’s changes of protection and development when these bonds result in a happy child. It is very possible that early childhood experiences which did not allow a child to develop a “good connection” with an adult in their early years can affect that child from establishing and maintaining good family relationships that will help to safeguard a child from abuse. Therefore, children who did not have good early childhood attachments are more exposed to abusive situations which can result in the children having to be removed from family care altogether.

Good early attachment or bonds equals to good early childhood experiences between parents and caregivers, which will build lasting relationships. All children need a consistent and caring relationship with their parents or caregivers to ensure that they form a secure bond. According to The National Scientific Council on The Developing Child : Young Children Develop in an Environment of Relationships: Working Paper No. 1, young children experience their world as an environment of relationships and these relationships affect virtually all aspects of their intellectual, social, emotional, physical, behavioural, and moral development. The quality and stability of a child’s human relationships in the early years lay the foundation for a wide range of later developmental outcomes that really matter;

– Self-confidence and sound mental health
– Motivation to learn and achieve in school and later in life
– The ability to control aggressive impulses and resolve conflicts in non-violent ways
– knowing the difference between right and wrong
– having the capacity to develop and sustain casual friendships and intimate relationships
– And ultimately to be a successful parent oneself.

Therefore, a stable family from which bonds are formed is significant for a child’s development. Strong or stable families provide the social support necessary for a stable society. During this period of Christmas celebrations, it serves to be reminded that families offer the best environment for raising children, providing them with the love, support, and education necessary for success in adult life. The family, therefore, is the best environment for nurturing and rearing future generations, preparing them for the responsibilities that they will need to function in society.

Regards
Shaquita Thomas
Communications Officer
ChildLinK Inc