INTERACTION BETWEEN PARENTS AND CHILDREN

Column: 485

INTERACTION BETWEEN PARENTS AND CHILDREN

19.

Mdm Cynthia Phua asked the Acting Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports what will his Ministry do in the light of a survey by the ST Media Club that children and parents are not interacting with each other and see each other as strangers.

Dr Vivian Balakrishnan: Strengthening parent-child relationships is a priority area in my Ministry's efforts to promote and build strong families. Development of healthy relationships characterised by open communication based on trust requires much commitment by parents. Building confidence in connecting with their children is a life long process for every parent, starting during the early years of the child.

As teenage years are probably the most challenging for parent and child, more efforts and resources have been invested in developing programmes to address the challenges of parent-teenager relationships.

To ensure effective and comprehensive outreach, my Ministry's School Family Education Programme was launchedtwo years ago in collaboration with the Ministry of Education to facilitate easier access to family life education programmes. During its first year of implementation in 2003, 14,000 parents in 18 schools participated in parenting as well as parent-child bonding programmes. About 5,500 of them were parents of students fromseven secondary schools. I am pleased to report that more than 95% of the 14,000 parents have found the School Family Education Programme very useful and 60% of them reported improvements in their family life as a result of using the skills. Currently 40 schools are participating in the Programme. Another 20 schools will be coming on board next year.

The main focus of the annual National Family Week campaigns in 2003 and 2004 has been on strengthening parent-teen relationships. Based on favourable feedback and response, the Ministry will continue to emphasise the importance of parent-teenagers relations in next year's National Family Week.

The additional aspect is to encourage teenagers to better understand the challenges their parents face in managing their family, work and personal commitments as it takes both the child and parents to make family relations work. Lifeskills training for youths currently offered under School Family Education will be enhanced to meet the aspirations and contributions of youth. Such an emphasis will contribute to the teenager's development into a unique, mature individual with strong family ties.

Whilst the Government can help to facilitate programmes to promote and build strong families, ultimately the responsibility to establish strong parent-child bonds must still lie within the family.