Being a parent comes with all sorts of challenges. It can be a time of extreme stress by the time your child reaches the age of ten. Some are very simple to raise and these are usually the kids that have been able to form close bonds with their parents, or at least one of them. Others can be easy to raise because they are slightly immature for their ages as well. Keeping kids out of gangs is a huge priority right now and keeping them safe from any dangerous street activity they can get into is imperative.
You may be thinking your child would never be involved in any gang violence or affiliation, but you would be surprised to find out millions of parents are surprised when they learn their children has been a part of a gang for quite some time. Children as young as eleven have admitted to being involved in gangs without their parents ever knowing about it. They simply fall into the hands of the wrong crowd and from there it escalates.
The best method to keeping your kids away from gangs is by spending time with them and finding other resources to grab their attention. This means getting together to have certain family traditional events that you do together and enjoying one another's company. Do sporting events as a family, take road trips, even just going to the grocery store can be something to do to keep your kids off of the streets. The majority of kids that fall prey to the gangs are ones that are left unattended with one or both parents gone at work all day or night. Even though your budget may not have room in it for a babysitter, or your children may seem too old to even need one, it is a wise idea to have someone in the neighborhood go check on them when you are away. This serves as a double purpose so your kids have someone they trust to go to should there ever be an emergency as well and you are not available.
The next best thing to spending time with your kids, is communication. You absolutely must talk openly with your kids about gang activities and the many reasons why they need to steer clear of them. The violence that occurs, the jail time that has to be served as a result of it, and even the death that can come of it. Explain to them what happens to those who chose that path of life and how life is for those folks after jail time as an ex con. It may seem a bit graphic, but it is going to be something that is necessary to advise your children of those dangers in the world and keep them safe.
Good pointers. It is difficult for your child to end up in a gang if from a young age you stay involved, spend lots of quality time, etc, all the things the article said. Many times a reason a child reaches out to a gang is because of lack of feeling of fitting into their family or not having anyone else to rely on.
ReplyDeleteThis is getting better slowly, but this is one of the largest problems in Zambia. Many times families, older siblings get their younger siblings involved in there gang. It is very sad, but they target the kids that don't have two parents or no parents.
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