Stop cycle of ‘babies having babies’

“THE cycle of babies having babies, which has contributed to a lot of ills in our society, must be broken,” says Rennie Thomas-Caines, dean at Queen’s Royal College.

Thomas-Caines was among other speakers at the Positive Community, Positive Role Models symposium held at the Enterprise Government Primary School on Saturday.

The event was hosted in commemoration of International Men’s Day and International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

Thomas-Caines said if the appropriate stakeholders do not come together to put and end to the cycle of “babies having babies”, the challenges faced today as a society will continue.

She said a child’s mind must be shaped from as early as pre-school years.

“We need to start early. Parents need to take up their rightful role, but if you have children making children, this is not going to happen.”

She also said it was important to shape the future generation now, and called for parenting programmes to be put in place to educate parents about the role they play in their children’s lives.

Thomas-Caines said parents must understand that teachers are not placed in education institutions to train their child or children, but to educate and support a child’s growth and development.”

Christian Kidney, a representative of the Rotaract, said many young men grow up in an environment where there is only violence. He said the child then begins to mirror these negative behaviours when they become adults.

Kidney said young men must have positive role models to look up to.

“The progression of nature depends on the youths and they must have the right role models to shape them and put them on a path that can allow progression, or all they would know is violence.”

Activist Gregory Sloane-Seale defined a “real man” as a progressive male. “A progressive male for me would be someone who is comfortable within their skin and who is able to express himself.”

He said men should be able to positively express and show how they feel when they are sad, angry or jealous. “The range of emotions must be peacefully communicated, and that is the concept of a real man. We are all real men.”