The year’s longest school holiday is upon us again and parents, used to handing all their parenting duties to their children’s teachers, now have to execute their God-given role. And they are expected to do it right.
In an era of busy parents, working mothers, nanny-manned homes and – one may say, “thank goodness!” – digital TV and smartphone-owning kids, parenting has never been easier, yet more dangerous.
Gone are the days of children playing outdoors with their siblings and neighbours; instead, when they are not making a head start on that huge “holiday package” they came with from school, they are glued to the TV, switching from cartoons to teenage sitcom to Telemundo.
However, you may want to rethink letting your nice flat screen TV do all the babysitting for you. I recently advised my teenage daughter to go play outside with her visiting cousins, after she complained of boredom because the Yaka! token had run out and their favourite “toy” had been plunged in total blackness.
She responded: “How old are we, again? Our playing is in malls and elsewhere, not compounds, and I plan to play a lot these holidays.” Yes, they are quite mouthy too.
But with children now coming down with non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes, thanks to a sedentary lifestyle spent in front of a TV munching on unhealthy foods, how can parents ensure the children they return to teachers come February are healthy?
According to kidshealth.org, “Studies have shown that kids who watch too much TV are more likely to be overweight — and, depending on the content of what they see, more aggressive. Excess TV viewing also has been linked to poor grades, sleep problems, and behaviour problems.”
And paediatricians recommend that “children under age two not watch any television and that older kids not spend more than two hours a day watching TV or otherwise using a screen (DVDs, video games, computer use not related to school, tablets, and smartphones)”.
Huh! Many a parent reading that must be exclaiming.
Well, it does not help matters that a good number of Ugandan parents also do not regulate what their children watch on TV and as a result, the children pick up habits and doctrines that may not be acceptable to the parents’ desired values. Other studies even suggest that too much TV for infants and teenagers affects “verbal intelligence” among other things.
Given the increasing cases of NCDs, the ball is in parents’ courts to make sure children eat healthy and then exercise. I deliberately did not renew Yaka! for another 12 hours, and if nothing else may have come out of that, at least the teenagers in my home admit they communicated more than usual.
Also, when on holiday, my house help takes a break from all cleaning duties and allows the holiday-makers to get in some exercise by cleaning the house and compound, washing the car, cooking their lunch as well as running errands.
In braver homes, this is the time for the maid to go spend time with her own children for at least a month as the children fully man the home with their parents’ direct supervision.
While at that, also supervise what comes out of your kitchen closely. Eating junk food is not a sign of affluence; it is a sign of irresponsibility, especially if that is all you feed the children on.
It is a long holiday; use it to teach the children games you enjoyed such as kwepena (dodge ball) and others, whenever you are home. Teach them to cook and do basic chores at home.
You can also regulate the TV hours and invest in more exciting toys and board games.
The generation of teenagers I grew up with was much more healthier than today’s because we were too busy with housework and cooking to pay much attention to raging adolescence hormones; we were too happy chasing one another all over the village to be stressed and depressed as today’s children constantly complain; we had an archaic but healthy system, where Uganda Television (now UBC) started its broadcasts at 6pm and closed at midnight daily; schools valued sport and music, dance and drama; neighbours were still actually neighbours – not faceless strangers locked behind high perimeter walls on all sides of your property!
So, come February 2017, what kind of child is leaving your home for school?
One with a cocktail of allergies and other health complications, or a healthier one with better interpersonal as well as domestic skills?
Two months is a long time; we can start now.
carol@observer.ug
