“Go to your room!” is the most popular command to a child who listens, participates and butts in an adult conversation. This short and yet heavy line implies that children are expected never to take part with adult discussions that usually involve serious subject matters.
Fr. ConegundoGarganta, executive secretary of the Episcopal Commission on Youth (ECY) of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) however believes that this old practice of excluding children in adult discussions is the very reason why children today feel uninvolved in real matters of the society and of life in general.
As a result, many children are indifferent to events and people surrounding them, as they think that they do not have an important role to play. When a child shares his unsolicited thoughts among a group of adults, he is immediately interrupted and told not to interfere with the discussion. Garganta noted that this style of parenting does not create a firm worldview among children. This will only instill in children that their ideas are irrelevant, wrong, and not useful creating in the child a negative self-notion or image. He continued by saying that taking away the chance from the child to participate in adult discussion means lost opportunity for the child to practice his skills in rational thinking, organizing his thoughts to smoothly share his ideas in spoken words.
Therefore, the executive secretary encourages Filipinos to change this old style of school parenting. Parents should motivate their children to participate in adult discussions in appropriate situations instead. In the case that the subject or the topic of discussion is not suitable for the child, it should be known to the child why he is not allowed to participate in the discussion and then reminding him that his thoughts are always valuable only not at that particular moment.
Indeed, the society has to be reminded that the youth is its biggest asset and hope for the future that waits.
Source: Filipinos Told To Change Old School Parenting
