The Parent Network
- Kevin Finlay
- Aug 14, 2014
- 2 min read
Recently, on a wintery night, parents gathered in the staff room of the Botany Secondary College for a parent network meeting. There were about 30 present this time, although sometimes there have been 3-4 times that number. The parents don’t necessarily know each other, they have responded to an invitation through schools and on Facebook to attend. The purpose is to give parents tools to be able to deal with issues if they come up with their teenagers.
The topic this time was “Teens and Technology”. For at least five reasons this is a serious issue for teens.
1 The issue of cyber bullying
2 The latest craze to take “selfies” and then to send them to others via the internet.
3 Sleep issues – at a meeting on mental health last year the presenter talked about the major effect which a lack of sleep has on teenager’s lives. This is accentuated if people are on their mobile devices late at night.
4 Stalking issues. How do I know that my child is safe from people who want to prey on young people?
5 Addiction issues: many people (not just teens) have issues with being able to stay away from social media, gaming, etc via the internet.
A woman from the organization NetSafe spoke well about potential threats and what can be done. Before the night was closed with some further thoughts and a question and answer time, the group broke for supper. This is where we come in. Members of the Youth Trust have been quietly setting up to serve tea/ coffee and biscuits to those attending. The break in the middle is deliberate. As a Parent Network the idea is to try to connect parents with each other. Hopefully, over supper, parents meet other parents, who are gong through the same things as they are so they don’t feel isolated. Also the encouragement is that they be in contact with each other in between meetings for ideas and to support each other.
The Parent Network organizers respond to the feed-back given to them. This meeting on technology came as a result of suggestions from parents. Later in the year they are planning one to be in the Mandarin language so that Chinese speaking people can discuss issues they face with teenagers.
The Youth Trust believes that serving the supper is a good way to support a good initiative which promotes the health of our community in relation to youth.
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