Rambo Amadeus promotes alternatives to physical punishment
BIJELO POLJE, OCTOBER 27, 2009 – UNICEF National Goodwill Ambassador Rambo Amadeus visited a local preschool in Bijelo Polje, town on the north of Montenegro, in order to promote alternatives to physical punishment of children. “I believe that parents beat their children for two reasons essentially. The first is because they don’t have time and patience to talk to them, while the second one is because they are frustrated at work, in the street, in their environment and society and they have no strength to cope with this. So, they come home and only children are those who are not able to hit back. So, parents who are afraid to confront adults vent their anger on the child” Rambo Amadeus, UNICEF National Goodwill Ambassador “I believe that parents beat their children for two reasons essentially. The first is because they don’t have time and patience to talk to them, while the second one is because they are frustrated at work, in the street, in their environment and society and they have no strength to cope with this. So, they come home and only children are those who are not able to hit back. So, parents who are afraid to confront adults vent their anger on the child” says UNICEF National Goodwill Ambassador Rambo Amadeus while talking to children in the local preschool in Bijelo Polje about the ways their parents punish them.
According to UNICEF research conducted among parents of children up to 6 years old in June 2009, 77% of parents think that physical punishment is not an acceptable educational measure, but at the same time, 55% of parents hit their child at least once last week. When a child does something wrong, 46% of parents do not explain to the child why this should not be done, while only 7% of fathers engage in giving children first lessons of what is “right” and what is “wrong”. Although mother is mainly the one who punishes (69%), this role is, however, taken by a certain percentage of fathers (21%). “Children are more vulnerable than adults to being physically hurt by violence, as they are still growing and developing. Emotional violence does serious damage to young children as it strips children of their self-esteem and self-image.” points out UNICEF Programme Specialist Branka Kovacevic.
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