FAMILY & LIFESTYLE: A child is born without anything in its memory. Therefore, right away after birth, the child starts learning and feeding the memory with whatever it experiences. For instance, the child copes with the morals it finds in the society particularly in the family where it has been born.
Considering the above, we find that parents and other parent figures have to be very careful with children especially those aged between 1-4 years, being that, this is the age bracket when the memory of the child is very sharp to get whatever it is told and record what it experiences.
This is the age bracket when most of the moral values and behaviors are taught to the children. Therefore, it is very risky for parents who employ housemaids to look after their children and again risky to the Same parents who take their children to kindergarten schools at an early age.
Yes, these children will learn some morals and behaviors from the housemaids and or, the kindergarten caretakers but the societal morals and behaviors will not be imparted in these children as it would be when done by their parents and family members compared to those in extended families.
In African tradition, particularly parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins were supposed to do this but n today, this is not the case. Therefore, morals and behaviors which were acquired at a very early stage from the mentioned people are not acquired these days looking at the immorality and misbehaviors arising.
This is because today children are born and immediately taken to school, or they are being looked after by the housemaids who themselves have no morals and behaviors. Similarly, at school, the teachers may not promote these morals to the learners since they’re already past the moral-grasping age group.
For instance, at an early age, children are taught to respect elders, do home chores like digging, cooking, loving each other, sharing with friends, taught to be polite in how they talk especially in their mother language, and many other morals and behaviors.
Today, all this has been covered by early child education and housemaid child raring which has increased the immorality among youths. The pre-school child education by the parents and family members is no longer considered.
It is in this education that children of especially 1- 4 years are taught moral values and behaviors that will take them even to their adulthood. For instance, when a child is taught how to respect elders, be honest, be loving, keep cleanliness, dig, cook, and so on, this child grows up with the same morals and behaviors which will continue to be promoted at school by the teachers but having learned them from his or her childhood at home by the parents and family members.
Therefore, parents and other parental figures are called upon to mind a lot about their children in their early stage to instill in them the moral values and behaviors expected of a good human being.
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