Tema, July 12, GNA – The Redemption Congregation of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana (PCG) on Sunday marked its annual parents’ day celebration with a call on parents to guide their children in the use of gadgets.
The theme for the celebration was; “100 years of Children Service and Beyond: The Responsibility of Parents”.
Mrs Esther Okyere, Catechist Retired of PCG, giving the homily said failure of parents to guide their children with the use of such gadgets such as television, tablets, phones and laptops could lead to addiction.
Catechist Mrs Okyere said it was not enough to pay school fees while leaving the children to spend hours on gadgets and social media stressing that “they need guidance because when addiction sets in they can’t comprehend academically among other important things”.
She also urged parents to help their children to acquire the needed knowledge at an early as she explained that the first five years of a child was important as they learnt more than half of the things they needed to know in life.
“If your child is not your friend at age five when they are 25 years forget it you won’t get them as a friend”.
She said another element of parents’ responsibilities was social growth, noting that parents must imbibe good social behaviors in their children as well as creating a friendship between them to earn the trust of their wards.
“A child may not inherit talents of their parents, but may absorb their values, so let’s show the children the right behaviors to emulate”, she stated.
Catechist Mrs Okyere (RTD) bemoaned the social change in the Ghanaian society as she observed that in the past a child belonged to the community and any elder in society could discipline and nurture a child even if they were not theirs noting that there was a sharp change now as people rather see elderly people as witches and wizards.
Touching on the physical growth of the children, she said parents must ensure that their children were provided with a good home environment and nutritious food saying the junk food being fed children was too much as most of the kids ended up obsessed with other related sicknesses.
She also urged fathers to augment the efforts of their wives by engaging the children in house chores such as cleaning of their rooms and environment to ease the pressure on their mothers.
The retired catechist also implored parents to see to the spiritual growth of their children by imparting the Christian faith in them in accordance with Proverbs 22:6 which charged parents to “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it”.
GNA