KUCHING: The Welfare Community Wellbeing, Women and Childhood Development Ministry urges parents to be mindful of their children’s activities in order to cope with radical challenges in this modern era.
Its minister, Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah said while the government is intensifying efforts to educate the community to be kind, parents need to embrace the challenges by focusing on children’s personal development in ensuring their development process is healthy and mature.
“It is important for parents to help children in developing their personalities and identities as they grow and mature physically, cognitively, emotionally and socially.
“Don’t prepare a path for the child but prepare the child for a path.
“Whatever path that they may take, there will be challenges along the way and it is important that they are prepared to embrace challenges that may come and move forward to face those challenges,” she said during a graduation ceremony for 106 participants of a parenting course at Sarawak Club here, recently.
To strengthen bonding between the family institution, parents and children, Fatimah also reminded the parents of the need to adjust and adapt more holistic approaches with the inevitable progress in digital technology.
“We as parents tend to over-emphasise the academic achievements of our child whereby sometimes, we may overlook the need for a comprehensive approach in raising children and focusing on different aspects of development,” she said.
She also explained that the over-emphasising of academic achievements on children will only create strains that may exacerbate relationship between parents and their children.
“As a result, children may be less emotionally resilient and their mental health may be affected.
“They may get stressed easily when faced with vital examinations or become too anxious when meeting new people,” she said.
Citing the National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS), Fatimah expressed such approach could deceived children to suffer mental illness as the statistics shows that two out of five teenagers in Malaysia suffer from anxiety while one out of five are depressed.
“In 2015, statistics from the National Health and Morbidity Survey shows that 18.3 per cent of adolescents aged between 13 and 17 suffered depression.
“While 39.7 per cent is afflicted with anxiety, 10 per cent with suicidal tendencies and 9.6 per cent with stress.
“This means that not many young children are able to manage failures in life, as they are fragile and easily affected by stress and pressure from their surroundings,” she pointed out.
Fatimah is also concern with the current trend involving teenagers as young as 12 who are already dabbling in crime, drugs abuse, rape and even murder.
“As of October, 2018, Sarawak recorded the highest number of secondary school students found to be drug-positive especially methamphetamine, nationwide.
“Statistics from the National Anti-Drugs Agency (AADK) from urine tests conducted at 191 schools in high-risk areas, found out that 301 students were positive for drugs.
“The high-risk areas are Gita in Kuching, Samarahan, Sri Aman, Sibu, Bintulu and Miri.
“These students are below 18 years old and are already addicted to methamphetamine,” she said.
With the current alarming trend, Fatimah urged parents to take drastic measures to fight the drug menace.
“The special bond of affection between parents and children is necessary for a healthy parent-child relationship.
“We as parents must adopt a comprehensive groundwork for further social, emotional and cognitive development.
“As children grow up to become teenagers, they will begin to detach to a greater degree from existing family bonds and focus more on their peers and the outside world. They will look for greater independence and autonomy in decision making.
“As parents and caregivers, we must find the delicate balance between maintaining the familial bond and allowing teens increasing autonomy as they mature.
“We must provide a greater sense of connection which does not constrain them to flourish,” she advised.
Fatimah said that constructive approach will create a sustainable family institution, thus enhance communicative interactions between members in the family.
“Research has found constructive communication with a reasoned style of parenting will raise teenagers with higher rates of socially competent behaviour, take fewer drugs, and exhibit less anxiety or depression.
“Thus, the best way to figure out if our children have problems is to communicate regularly and unobtrusively with them,” she said, adding that “the best-adjusted children are looked after by parents who find a way to combine warmth and sensitivity with clear behavioural expectations.
She also expressed her gratitude to the regional co-ordinators of The Marriage Parenting Courses, Dr Wong Howe Tung and his wife Gan Chuei Lian who have been working hard working with the ministry.
The Parenting Teenagers Course (TPC) has been organised since 2017 by Sarawak Regional coordinators, under Alpha Malaysia Sarawak Bhd.
Jointly partnered with the ministry, The Parenting Children Course and The Parenting Teenagers Course have catered to parents of children from different age groups, whereby the course was developed based on Christian principles and has been widely accepted by parents of all beliefs as it carries universally accepted moral values.
Among those present were state Women and Family Department director Noriah Ahmad.
