In this social media era, parenting has become more challenging than ever before. The information explosion and busy work schedules have further stretched the gap between parents and children, making them leave their parental responsibilities to electronic gadgets.
On The Bruch Talk yesterday, Olive Najjuma engaged the Director of Family Comfort Foundation, psychologist, and teacher Elon Kihumulo on parenting in the midst of social media.
Ms. Kihumulo attributed the current parenting crisis to the covid 19 induced lockdown on schools which gave children full access to social media. She also emphasized that parents have neglected their responsibilities of nurturing children while prioritizing work.
“Parents are employing gadgets to parent their children due to busy work schedules and they have done a good job but what they have parented is something we can’t handle. It is high time we get back to our positions and did the aggressive parenting now,” she emphasized.
According to Kihumulo, parents need to watch television with their children to understand what the children are consuming and their understanding of it. And if children must possess phones, the content is modified to fit their ages.
“If you're buying a phone for a 5-year-old, you should put in the information of the child, their name and age. Some information will then be censored because of the ages inscribed in the gadgets. Most parents enter in their information or sometimes share their phones with the children yet their (parents’) phones can be used to access adult content,” she said.
Ms. Kihumulo also asked parents to openly discuss sex with their children because if it's hidden from them, they can use other sources to access it.
“You need to talk to your children and ask what their take is about such issues because it helps you gauge their perceptions of it. In most cases when watching TV, I'm forced to sit down with my children and watch the soaps with them because that will helps me understand the level at which they are and what to discuss with them,” she said.
“It's no longer possible to shy away from discussing sex with our children. We have to because they can relate to the personalities they watch and copy their actions thereafter,” she concluded.
Brunch Talk is hosted by Olive Najjuma Monica every Saturday from Midday to 1 pm on RX Radio.