The dawning reality today is that parents are rare; and where you find them they are fully booked! Many children are growing up without the privilege of effective parenting and leadership. These children grow up to hold leadership positions where they misappropriate the opportunity to serve their communities, and everybody criticizes them for their mess. Why? Where we all these people when the parents were setting up these "now-old-children" for a life of ineffectiveness?
I believe that we ought to have criticized the parents many years ago when they were messing up the lives of their children. Our outcry against these children who have grown to become menaces to the society is far too late.
I have said it before and will repeat it here: "The home is the breeding ground of street children; the street is their training ground."
When will we redirect our focus to where it ought to be? Let's give attention to leadership in the home as much as we give to parenting. Many children have begun to assume the leadership responsibility in their homes simply because their parents are defaulting. I hope it doesn't happen to you.
The failure of the children when they grow up indicates the failure of the parents in training their wards effectively. Teenage years are the real test of effective parenting. When a child leaves home, the quality of parenting (s)he has received show up while he is away from home. So parents, this test awaits you.
Take your place as a leader in the home and earn the right to influence your children; that way we can preserve the dignity and sanity of our children in the years to come. Remember, train a child in the way he should go and he will not depart from it when he grows up.
The ball is in your court
