Some parents in Karu Local Government Council of Nasarawa State, have advised fellow parents to maintain close friendship with their children for easy and fruitful parenting.
Some of the parents, who spoke in separate interviews on Monday, explained that close friendship with children enabled parents to relate and communicate properly with them.
One of the respondents, Mr Emmanuel Israel explaining the smartness and emotionally independent of the new generation children unlike the old generation, emphasised intimacy was required in training them.
“These days, children are smarter than how you see them. Most times they tend to get their problems solved by themselves or by their friends outside.
“So, for a parent to get information from a child, you need to get close to the child and also give the child sense of confidence that he or she can trust you.
“And for this to happen, your child has to see you as not only a parent, but best friend and who will always be there for him or her,” Israel said.
Similarly, Mrs Folashade Vincent, mother of three and Proprietress of Wemicent International Schools Koruduma, Karu said that being close to your child is the key to getting the best from the child.
According to her, with the state of the society and the happenings around, any parent that wants to succeed in bringing up her child must develop an unbreakable friendship.
“If that bond is there with your child, he or she will communicate properly with you without any fear or discrimination.
“Remember, whatever your child does not confine in you, he or she will definitely confide in someone else and the result may not turn out well.
“Following the wrongs in the society these days, every child should be able to find solace in the parents and this can only be achieved if a parent is friendly with the child.’’
According to Vincent, when there is free flow of information between parents and children, training and getting it right becomes easy both sides and right advice becomes inevitable.
Mr Luis Auta, a business man, noted that the level of cyber bullying and other form of bullying was on the increase and as such parents needed to do more outside their usual way of training.
He said that parents should at every point in time; make their children see them as the best people they could confide in.
“Many kids have committed suicide because they could not voice out what they are passing through.
“Parents should first of all make their children their best friends, thereby making it obvious to the children and by so doing the children will always tell them their problems.
“When such friendship is established, these children will be eager to discuss things that happened both in the open and in secret with their parents.
“Children should not be afraid of discussing sensitive issues with their parents.” Auta advised.
However, Mrs Tola Balogun, a business woman at Mararaba market, said that in as much as it was good to be close and friendly with your child, it should not be taken for granted.
Balogun added that,”spearing the rod, can spoil the child” as some children needed strictness in bringing them up because being too friendly with them could as well ruin their lives.