The police in Wheathampstead, which is a village about an hour’s north of London, have come up with an interesting plan. In order to curb youth offenders (under-age drinking, aggressive behavior, etc.), they are attempting to force the miscreant’s parents to go to parenting classes. Interesting indeed. I will be following this story closely.
[tags]kids, parenting classes, police, law, enforcement[/tags]
2 responses so far ↓
t-bird // Mar 1, 2007 at 9:10 pm
I suspect it may be more productive than just dishing out “ASBOs” assuming that the sessions are aimed at giving parents tools/stratagies for dealing with their darling offspring rather than just telling them what rubbish parents they are! And it needs to be coupled with dealing with the kids AND whoever is supplying alcohol to them in a way that doesn’t just make it “cool” to be an “outlaw” in teh way an ASBO does. We had issues with teenagers congregating at the end of our drive - we h ad a low fence perfect for them to sit on and a street light so they could see. We came to an arrangement with them that they would keep the noise down to a dull roar after a certain time and asked that they dumped their rubbish in our bin rather than on our grass. Result? they were happy to comply, we didn’t need to clear up their trash and when someone accidentally broke the fence they ‘fessed up and helped mend it.
Whitney // Mar 2, 2007 at 1:40 pm
The problem is no parenting classes before children are born.. They come with less instructions than a blender, and the outcome of the care and maintenance reflects this.
Plus, in one of my former incarnations in the legal system, we used to have to send people to parenting classes. They tend to be taught by wholesome, middle class social workers to underprivileged, undereducated people- and the effect is to emphasize class differences, rather than impart knowledge. I think getting some one to think more about their parenting style requires a little more involvement than making someone attend parenting classes and pass an exam- because the proof will be in whether they incorporate these tools into their every day lives.
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