Seek help, DPP tells parents

Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Paula Llewellyn yesterday urged a group of parents to seek help and advice from professionals or experienced parents on how to tackle specific problematic behavioural issues involving their children.

She was the guest speaker at the St Richards Primary School's 13th annual Principal's Golden Achievers Club awards ceremony, which was held at the St Richard of Chichester Roman Catholic Church at the institution on Red Hills Road in Kingston.

Approximately 150 students were awarded for their exemplary display of disciplinary conduct and their excellent academic performance since the start of the school year in September, last year.

"When you have the care of a child, you have to have self-discipline. If you are a parent and you are not sure about how to deal with certain situations, seek help. Your child's well-being depends on it and also your sanity depends on it," Llewellyn told the gathering.

"A lot of the domestic murders we have now come from a situation where the adults learned intolerance (as children). The adults did not learn how to tolerate one another when they grew up, so life is a constant fight," she said.

Make habit of reading

The DPP firmly highlighted the importance of parents getting children into the habit of reading from the very early stages of their development.

"Too many parents are afraid to give tough love, and they give up parenting to the television, to the friends of their children, and now, they are giving it up to the tablet and the computer. I love vocabulary. I won a lot of cups (trophies) when I was your age for vocabulary," Llewellyn told the students.

"I decided that I wouldn't have a child who could not speak articulately and critically analyse. When she was two plus (her daughter), I put subtitles on the television so when she watched her little cartoons, she would see the words scrolling. Another thing I did not allow her to (do) until age eight (was) to have any interactive toys. I would take her to the book store and I would reward her with one book," she said.