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The daily horrors of modern parenting

Published on Sep 21, 2002 The Nation

Parents at seminar learn they share similar problems raising kids

Who would want to be a parent today?

Parents around Bangkok yesterday met to exchange ideas on how to improve a child's environment to limit the multitude of risks thrown up by the city.

They came together for a seminar organised by Rajabhat Institute in Suan Dusit.

And while there they offered up a litany of horror stories.

The Nation offers this sample.

A mother was shocked to discover that her teenage daughter - while living under the same roof every day - had given birth to her grandchild.

Another mother learnt her sixth-grade son regularly went around to his friends house to watch porn.

And an uncle said his teenage nephew threatened to kill him if he told his parents that he got addicted to amphetamines from the money he made betting on football matches.

Assoc Prof Sukhum Chaloey-sub, Rajabhat Institute deputy director, said the institute recently surveyed parents who had daughters living in dormitories, apartments, mansions or with relatives and found that most could not accept their child having premarital sex.

But that concern was secondary to them using illegal drugs, while worries about their child's study habits was also a major concern.

All of the surveyed parents said they also could accept their daughter selling her body.

Most surveyed parents said that for boys to carry condoms and have sex was acceptable.

But like the girls, they would not accept their son selling his body.

Parent Supakorn Denkra-chang said she had accepted premarital sex was a part of today's society and parents should no longer believe a woman's self-value was diminished when she lost her virginity.

"Many women who first have sex with their boyfriend do not care if they have to give their body to other men,'' she said.

A Nonthaburi parent said that four years ago she was shocked to discover her daughter had given birth.

"I got a telephone call that my daughter had just given birth and I almost fainted. She was with us every day but I thought she was just getting overweight, not pregnant.

"But I admit that I should have realised that she was pregnant because she started to lie and overspent.''

The Nation