Jamaica's 'Parent's Place' Teaches Parents How to Become a Better Stewards of Their Children

Parents only want what's best for their children. But oftentimes, especially when it comes to discipline, most of them fail that they end up hurting or beating their children whenever their kids cross their boundaries. Given this reason, "Parent's Place" in Jamaica was established.

"We find a shortcoming because a lot of the parents don't know how to relate to the children," a father of five Michael McLaughlin said. "Most of the times it causes the children to get out of hand and to be undisciplined."

The parents of West Street in downtown Kingston gather every Monday at the Kington's All Saints Church to discuss topics related to child discipline and share ideas on how they could effectively implement it. For these parents, the future of their children depends on how they would discipline them.

In the Parent's Place, parents are required to spend about seven hours every Monday. As posted by The Gleaner, their activities include the studying and meditating the Word of God, playing musical instruments and having fun with games like dominoes. The group also conducts discussions regarding the member's family life, their way of parenting and also the social issues that circulate which could possibly affect their community.

To those parents who are not available by Monday, several churches reach out to them through the Ministry of Education. Their goal is to conduct lessons for them to provide an opportunity for these parents to open up and express what they feel towards their everyday challenges while educating them about possible solutions.

Meanwhile, through research, it has been found that spanking, slapping or hitting a kid were never effective as a way of disciplining children, just as posted in Kid's Health. "Most of the time, beating don't work for kids, because if you beat them now, them a go back go do the same thing," mother of four Kiola Cowan reasoned out.