It is time for potential parents to sit a FIT FOR PURPOSE text

MILTON KEYNES, U.K. - Aug. 8, 2013 - PRLog -- I have dedicated my whole career to developing and deploying training courses for Military, Police and Security personnel. Several years ago I laid down the blueprints of the “Life Skills for Children” programme, which was designed to provide young people with a unique set of skills to increase their personal safety, confidence, communication skills and their ability to positively interact in social arenas. The course was very successful and once the pilot was completed formed the centre piece for a charity I set up called “Young People are our Future”.

The charity has successfully delivered this course to over 6,600 young people and their families and whilst a majority of the parents we see are hard-working, committed parents who are doing what they can to bring up their children in the best way possible for them, I do think it is now time the Government considers bringing in a FIT FOR PURPOSE test for potential parents.

In just the last few months I have personally witnessed unbelievable acts of stupidity from parents who clearly should not have children. I have had arguments with parents who like to throw as much negativity at schools, the government and anybody else who will take the blame for their blatant lack of parenting skills and basic lack of intelligence.

Most of us have an understanding of what we consider to be a good or bad parent and many of the people I work with share the common believe that those parents who neglect their children due to an addiction or personality defect (Mental Illness) require support and education so that their children have a chance of growing up in a safe and nurturing environment.

My problem is those parents who clearly fall short on the intelligence chart and struggle to complete the basic functions involved in getting from day to day.

I have two very clear examples of these types of parents all of whom I have experienced whilst running this charity. A part of the Young People are our Future objectives is to provide FREE events around the city of Milton Keynes where young people and their families can attend and learn some key life skills and participate in a number of FREE activities designed to enhance their confidence whilst getting them to be active and a positive part of the community.

Anybody who runs FREE events within a community will know of the huge amount of work that goes into making sure everyone enjoys the event. One of the events my charity ran in March of this year was very well attended. Our wonderful volunteers were in place and a steady flow of young people were turning up when my attention was brought to a young Asian boy (7 yrs old) who had a note in his hand.

In order to comply to the many safe guarding regulations that have to be in place to run activities for young people, we require parents or guardians over 18 to sign their children in and provide us with the normal details such as name and contact number etc.

Upon reading the note the parent had informed us of the boy’s name, age and placed a mobile number. I asked some of my colleagues if anybody had seen his parents and the reply was “the boy was dropped off in the car park)

What was very apparent and alarming was the boy had a severe learning difficulty. I rang the mobile number on the note but it was not recognised.
Thankfully one of our team members was kind enough to care for the boy for the duration of the event.

Nearly 30 minutes after the event had finished and just before a phone call was made to the relevant authorities the boy’s father decided to show up. After a stern conversation in which he was told of our disbelieve that he had just dropped he boy in the car park with a note, the wrong mobile number and with no refreshments, his father claimed not to speak English very well and left swiftly.

My second and final example of parents who I seriously question have the intelligence to bring up young people is my motivation for this article. A huge part of the Young People are our Future charity is inspiring kids through sport so we recently ran a sports day where we encouraged entire families to participate in some basic athletics, football, rugby, baseball etc.

The event was a great success until approximately 1 hour after the conclusion when everyone had made their way home. I checked the messages on my mobile to be astonished at a message left by a young mum who said “Hi Gary, I would like my two kids to attend today and I have dropped them off at the bus station ready for you to pick them up. I am taking my smallest child to the cinema so will see you later”. I had a huge issue with the message as I have never spoken to this women before and as a charity we never pick up or drop off young people. The bus stop she mentioned was nearly two miles away from the location where we were running the event.

Two messages on and I hear from her again. “I am disgusted at you because I went to the cinema and returned to the bus stop 3 hours later to see my two kids still sitting there waiting. I thought you were supposed to pick them up” I rang her and explained the situation and how distressed I was that she would just leave her kids in a bus stop waiting to be picked up by a complete stranger. She said she read the advert in the paper promoting the event wrong and put the phone down.

I have to say a majority of the parents I see and work with within the charity are great, but I think the three examples I have laid down in this article clearly demonstrated that it is time for potential parents to undergo a basic FIT FOR PURPOSE test to measure their basic level of intelligence and to educate them in some of the basic responsibilities of parenting.

Many of the people I work with are very quick to BLAME teachers, the government and the media for many of the youth related issues that exist today, but let’s stop pointing the finger and make sure those who decide to become parents at least have the basic intelligence to give their children a chance in life.