Funmi Ogundare
Stakeholders from all walks of life recently converged on the Protea Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos for the launch of ‘The Hurried Child’ project, aimed at highlighting the dangers of rushing or overburdening a child through childhood years conditionally or unconditionally by factors influencing the home, school and society thereby causing negative stress.
The programme themed, ‘The realities of Motherhood and the Hurried Child Problem in Nigeria’, was organised by A Mother’s Love Initiative (AMLi), a non-government organisation that advocates for the psycho-sociological wellbeing of the African child, the development of an ideal family within the African society and changing the narrative of the African child.
Speaking at the programme, the Head Research and Projects Development of the organisation, Mr. Mohammed Ahmed Ademola, noted that it had carried out a quantitative survey to examine the perception and awareness of the public on the attitudes, practices and patterns of lifestyle that contributes to hurried child syndrome within the country.
Based on the findings, he noted that Nigerians are aware of the negative effects of hurrying a child and also aware of the significance of ‘involved and intentional parenting’; and in loco parentis, to ensure a child enjoys a quality experience in childhood.
He expressed concern about the dearth of literature on the construct of the hurried child syndrome in the African context, making it difficult to analyse the phenomenon from a multicultural perspective critically.
“This begs the need for further research in this area of child development,” Ademola said.
He affirmed the need for academic scholars to be engaged in developing interventions that can curb or control the spread of the syndrome in Nigeria and Africa at large, with special attention given to our indigenous cultural practices that may serve as protective factors in buffering the syndrome.
He also stressed the need for child psychologists, counsellors, health care providers, and social workers to be enlightened about the issue that would help their private and public practices.
“Parenting practices must be revised and taught at tertiary levels to bridge knowledge and skills gap of the next set of parents for the future. Work policies must be further revised ( key attention to the private sector) to reduce parenting stress and encourage inclusive and balanced parenting,” he stressed.
He emphasised the psychological assessment of stress in children, noting that this should be a critical indicator in their admission process. in schools.
Ademola said the government should also establish post-marital counselling clinics in each Local Governments Areas.
Earlier in her remarks, the First Lady of the state, Dr. Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu, said the theme is rightly focused on fundamentally supporting and defending the child’s rights because the day falls on the 2021 World Day For the Prevention of Child Abuse.
Sanwo-Olu, represented by the Commissioner for Budget and Planning, Mrs. Edith Ebube, stressed the need for all stakeholders to continue to play up advocacy on the need to guide parents, teachers, and society on how to avoid the trap of promoting the practice of hurrying children in Africa while expressing concern that a hurried child may turn out to be half-baked, which eventually will pose a serious challenge to society in the long run.
The Commissioner for Education, Mrs. Folasade Adefisayo, regretted that hurrying children through early childhood leads to maladjustment, mental health challenges, and psychosocial incompetence as they grow through adolescence into adulthood.
She noted that the state has a policy that ensures that every child must go through all primary school levels, adding that her mantra as an educationist is that there is a star in every child.