Simple things parents can do to prevent
YOUTH GANG AFFILIATION
Mas Fuerza Classroom, Photos by Rob Gallardo
1. Have an open and loving relationship with your child. Make sure he/she can talk to you about anything without your initially getting upset or bothered. It's not just the words, but body language that suggests openness and understanding is also highly important.
2. Set frequently reiterated expectations and clear, unchanging rules for your child.
3. Know your child's friends and their parents
4. Monitor the child's progress in school all the time -- not just at parent night or report card issuance. Be on top of homework, projects, activities
5. Ensure the use of appropriate clothing and accessories for public activities, school and outings
6. Know what your child is watching on TV and Internet and listening to on radio, IPOD, streaming media
7. Observe curfew regulations
8. Know where your child is at all times
9. Teach your child to respect all people and to be polite and circumspect in public
10. Make your home a place where your child is comfortable and wants to be
Providing material things for our children is just the start of being a good parent. Children are not mind readers and they need to be told and showed that they are loved, they are important to you, and that you will always be there for them physically, emotionally and spiritually. Our kids, like us, are a composite Body, Mind and Soul. All these areas must be tended to well in order for a child to grow up to be productive.
Children are a lot like plants and flowers. To keep the flower alive, attractive and flourishing, the responsible adults in her sphere must provide nurturance, nourishment. These all require time and deliberate effort.
Raising good kids is no accident.
Furthermore, we can't reasonably expect "hit and miss" success. The goal should always be success. Your child is only a child once.
Is your child a candidate for gang affiliation?: A Profle
"The one most important thing kids need to help them survive in this world is someone who's crazy about them."
Urie Bronfenbrenner, [(1976), The Ecology of Human Development. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press] as quoted by Hillary Rodham Clinton in "It Takes A Village", 1996, Simon and Schuster.
REFLECTIONS
"My mother and father talked to us about what we owed other people from a humanitarian standpoint. ... it was a world in which we were, No. 1, to make a contribution, and, if we were judged, we would be judged by what we did for others. And it was a world in which everyone was deserving of our concern and compassion." Steve Murdock, Demographer
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Copyright 2007
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