HANDLE WITH CARE

Our boys need gentle handling too, insists Minister of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs Cynthia Forde.

Delivering the feature address yesterday at the Child Care Board’s National Children’s Service at the New Dimension Ministries, Barbarees Hill, she urged parents to socialise boys in ways similar to girls.

“In Barbados, we socialise our girls differently. ‘Stay in the house and read a book, plait someone’s hair, learn to sew, go and cook’; and you know what our parents say to our boys, ‘Go and fly a kite, go with the fellas down the road’ and then our boys get difficulty in reading and
settling well. The girls get their hair properly braided and the boys go to school with their hair uncombed sometimes, even without their clothes being properly pressed,” Forde lamented.

“We feel as though the boys should be rough and tumble to be a man and you see what the roughness is doing? We are turning out some boys who really need that love and attention, the hugs and the kisses, the nice buzz words, the whispering in the ear of how wonderful they are and how handsome they are, capable they are of doing responsible things. We must do it if we are to save our men in our society. This morning let us embrace our boys and give them a little more attention as much as we give our girls because they are our children,” the Minister argued.

The theme for the event was ‘Celebrating the Champion in You’ and Forde encouraged the students to allow the champion within them to shine and to not allow the results of any examinations to hinder them.

“Do not let negative outcomes make you want to give up. Perseverance seldom fails,” she stressed. (JMB)