Parents Summit Africa, an NGO, has charged parents in Nigeria to have a positive attitude to parenting in order to build a better, responsible and developed nation.
Mrs Vivian Okoye, the Convener of the NGO, made the call at the annual free Summit in Abuja.
The summit had as its theme, “Equipping You to Raise Children Who Are Wholesome, Resilient and Nation Builders”.
Okoye said that parenting style is important, as it determines how children perform in the domains of social competence, psychosocial development, academic performance and behavior.
The convener revealed that the Summit was aimed at equipping parents with the knowledge and skills needed to take on the responsibility of parenting 21st century children.
According to her, bad parenting was responsible for most of the challenges confronting the nation today, saying that positive parenting would develop a child.
“The true Nigerian parenting style includes tough love, discipline, instilling a sense of responsibility, diligence at home chores.
“We have all heard of the stories of the aunties or neighbours who would beat a child for misbehaving and when the parents are informed, they would also add their own.
“My advice is that parenting starts from you, so you have to actually become the kind of person you want your child to become, not just saying or asking,” she said.
However, she lamented that the Nigerian parenting style has changed, adding that the parenting style today seems to be more lenient.
She explained that the family played a huge role in defining how every society grows and influences the kind of value transmitted to the society.
“The problems we face as a society is because we have failed at the individual levels and at the family levels, in our own capacity, we can do more to change the narrative.
“Our society today is defined by a lot of negative values, during news hour its either a fraud has been uncovered or there is insecurity or kidnapping,” she said.
Okoye, also advised parents who leave their children at the care of maids to strike a balance by giving adequate attention to know them better.
