What does the future hold post Covid-19

Parents approached randomly by yours truly about the topic, spoke of how they fear the prolonged changes in the lives and routines of their children could have a devastating effect on their future.

Although none of the concerned parents I spoke to could put a handle on their fears all of them, however, seem to attribute it to being a ‘mother thing’ that men won’t understand.

The 10 mothers I chatted to about this topic based their anxiety on the following:

• Dying and leaving their young children unattended
• The lawlessness in the country
• Their children getting hooked on drugs
• Child abuse
• Poverty
• Prostitution
• Human trafficking.

The fear of leaving their children behind with no one to take care of them is the foremost concern that keeps some parents over the age of 50 awake at night. For the majority of these elderly parents, their primary concern is whether their children will or will not cope with life once they (parents) are no longer there to guide and provide for them.

Secondly, it is so sad that both the parents and their growing teenage sons and daughters find themselves victims caught up in the dangerous web of lawlessness that has engulfed every street in every town of our beautiful land.
It is undoubtedly this rising wave of crime and criminality that clouds the future for the youth.

Of course, we know what the abusive consumption of synthetic drugs had done to our youth. We can agree that drug abuse is the biggest headache that parents, teachers and law enforcement officers are grappling with each day.

Drug abuse paints a frightful picture of what the future of our youth could look like if society, the youth and the government do not stand together against this scourge. Every effort must be made to prevent the youth from becoming drug addicts and those already addicted to being rehabilitated.

Child abuse is a scourge that has scarred hundreds if not thousands of children in just about every town across the length and breadth of the land. Child abuse remains the most traumatic experience for victims, worse still if they are children.

While most children understand the trauma of abuse, not many would like to grow up into adulthood in such an environment.

We all know how poverty has dehumanised many families and destroyed households in our neighbourhoods. We also know how difficult it is for a child, who grows up in such dire conditions, to keep up with those who are raised in affluent homes.

And without the courage and the self-esteem to face life with confidence, many young people simply drop out of school and join the destitute in our communities. Once again, the underlying factors are more than just concerns about the future, but their family’s deep roots in poverty and need and drugs become the only option.

Prostitution is the shame of families and it is also the only option out of poverty it seems for many young teenage girls. This is the worst situation any parent or family can wish to find their daughter in.

We’ve all heard or read stories about human trafficking and know what a deplorable situation trafficked people find themselves in once they are caught in this evil human trade.