THIS is with reference to the suicide committed recently by a shoolgirl in Balochistan (reports on Feb 15& 17). Let us understand what has gone wrong here.

The first link is “parents’’: the fact is that parents do not have time for their children, though this sounds unacceptable but this is a fact. Parents should spend time with their children. They must communicate with them and give them an opportunity to communicate with them. Parents have to stop focusing on the implied rudeness in child’s conversational styles and understand that sometimes what they think is rudeness may be a ‘buried’ hurt coming out strongly.

The second link is ‘family’. Let your child connect with family members regularly. Use Sundays to meet grandparents and others.The third link is ‘media’, which must stop sensationalising incidents like murder and rape. After watching such stories on news channels, a movie or a serial, parents should talk and discuss with their children about what they saw. This kind of family education helps.

The fourth link is school. If children fail to perform well in school, parents need to go ‘soft’ on non-performance in examinations. Parents will have to work to come out of this rat race that leads to the death race.

Give children love, care and a patient hearing. We will have a better world. Let’s understand that children may be just 20pc of the population but they are 100pc of the future.Let’s take care of the future today.

Abeer Hussain

Karachi

Published in Dawn, February 20th, 2016