Parents need to listen more: Youth advocate

Children turn to drugs when parents fail to give them attention, with work stress causing unintentional neglect at home.

Former youth parliamentarian Patricia Subbaiya said parents often prioritise work and providing for the family, leading children to stray into peer pressure and miss school.

"When we speak on parents, I think they liaise more on work stress and providing for the family and sometimes they tend to unintentionally neglect the attention to children," Ms Subbaiya told this masthead.

"Which is why children stray off and they miss schools or they fall into peer pressure."

Ms Subbaiya, speaking after yesterday's Counter Narcotics Bill consultation at Suva Civic Centre, said the problem stemmed from older generation attitudes about authority.

"It leads back to the stigma of the older generation. I'm older and I need to be the one in charge and you need to listen to me rather than me listening to you," she said.

Her advice to parents was simple: listen more.

"It's okay if you don't agree to the opinion but it's another thing to be lending an ear," she said.

"If a parent is sitting down and discussing an issue with a child, I think that is more than enough for the child to realise that my parent is paying attention to me."

Ms Subbaiya said even small gestures mattered.

"If you're busy then just pull them aside and say, look, I'm busy. I'll get back to you in about an hour or 15 minutes. Just lending an ear would be more effective than anything else," she said.

The Ministry of Policing and Communications is conducting nationwide consultations on the Counter Narcotics Bill until February 23, with the bill expected to be presented to Cabinet by March.

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