4th August 2011
Situation: Young mother reportedly left her two young babies alone sleeping and one of them left the house during her absence and fell into a 4 foot deep hole on some property nearby and drowned.
As unfortunate as the situation was, this brings to mind many questions. The main one being, is it really fair to blame the mother totally? Now don’t get me wrong, it was her negligence that caused the incident. I mean come on, what parent in their right mind leaves babies unattended even if they are sleeping? But then that’s the next question. Was she in her right mind? Not that I’m saying that she is mentally unstable. But obviously she has very little inclination as to what are the responsibilities of a parent. Or else why would she think it safe to leave two sleeping babies by themselves to run get a…cigarette, was it? Play cards? Collect food? All kinds of stories I’ve heard but none of them seem more important than watching your children.
One then has to wonder at the training of this individual. I’m sure 1000’s of parents across Trinidad and Tobago said a collective ‘what?’ upon hearing such a thing, as it is evident to them that it is ridiculous to leave children unattended no matter their state, many of them chorusing from the experience of learning from taking care of many children themselves.
Which brings us back to training. This young lady (she ain’ 18 years yet no matter how many children she have!) has two children, both under the age of two, which gives us an idea of the age she was when she gave birth to them. Now before I say the rest let me acknowledge the young mothers out there who taking damn good care of their children and would never do something so stupid! But let me ask you this, not just the young parents but all, do or did you have help in raising your children? And by help I mean guidance. Many new parents don’t know what the hell they're doing and it’s ONLY their pure maternal and paternal instincts that does stop them from just doing dumb stuff that will endanger their childrens lives.
Everyone knows the saying, ‘it takes a village to raise a child’, but let me take it a bit further. If it takes a village to raise a child doesn’t that affect the raising capabilities of our future children as well? Who raised this young lady to be so absent-minded that she thinks it’s okay to leave her BABIES unattended? Obviously it was the same people who raised her to get pregnant twice before she was even old enough to vote. So, my question today people is, yes, blame the mother, she should have known better, but obviously she didn’t, and keep in mind she is still essentially a child herself. However, is she TOTALLY to blame, or is this just an example of the direction our society is heading in if we neglect to raise our children properly as this will inevitably affect their ability to be good parents.
Leh meh hear yuh nah?!
Trinbagonian Baby
Dealing with real, everyday issues in Trinidad and Tobago today.
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