Recently, there have been more news reports about children being left alone at home, in poor hygienic condition and without food.
Write a letter to the Hong Kong Post expressing your concern about this issue. In the letter, state the causes and suggest how similar incidents can be avoided. Sing your name “Chris Wong”.
Dear Editor,
I am writing to voice my opinion on the saddening issue about children being left at home. It is gloomy to observe that the news reports about children being involved in domestic accidents hog the headlines on a regular basis. Such cases usually start with parents telling children to behave well at home alone and end up with putting children’s lives at risk. The content of each case looks similar, but at the same time, is heartbreaking. Most of us would frown upon the phenomenon of seeing a spate of similar cases pop out but rarely do we trace back for the culprit. It is high time we stopped watching the worsening situation with folded arms.
To begin with, some parents are under the mistaken notion that their home is always the safest shelter for their children at any time. They overlook the staggering potential of domestic accidents. Subsequently, they do not realize that leaving children at home alone is tantamount to putting them in jeopardy. And in fact, children are far from being capable of taking care of themselves. First and foremost, children’s bodies are not yet entirely developed. Moreover, children’s minds are too immature to judge what the dos and don’ts are. It is an erroneous concept for parents to think that it is always safe to keep their children at home without parental supervision. Seemingly, parents’ soft attitude towards domestic safety plays a key role in leading to numerous cases of children being left at home alone. Child caring should not be taken lightly and done simply by locking the children at home.
When it comes to child negligence, parents always come under fire for being irresponsible and thoughtless. But if we travel back time, the number of cases of parents leaving children at home did not seem to be a problem at all, not to mention domestic accidents. So, what makes the situation of leaving children at home today jeopardous? It is mainly because the days of having an intimate neighbourhood are long gone. In the past, the relationship between neighbours was so close that people helped each other with child care whenever necessary. Nowadays, the gap between people is wide. Neither our neighbours’ names nor their needs do many of us know. In this way, how could parents who have to leave their children behind for some reasons be offered a helping hand? Distrust among people, worse still, deters parents from asking for help. As a result, some parents decide to lock their children at home alone without a second thought. In short, cases of child nelgect also stem from the loosened rapport among people.
This bitterly saddening issue has perplexed the government for days. Even so, there are still some practical way-outs to turn the situation around.
To start with, the government may establish more child care centers in order to cater for the mounting demand for child care services. The establishment of child care centers is in urgent need because we have to stop any more cases of children being left alone from emerging in no time, for the sake of protecting children’s lives. Moreover, the policy on prohibiting child negligence has to be further strengthened to act as a deterrent.
After that, the government may start embarking on solving the root of the problem. For example, more advertisements on promoting domestic safety and emphasizing the danger of leaving children alone at home have to be produced and broadcast to alert people about the potential domestic danger. Apart from that, publicizing official publications which illustrate the cases of children’s domestic accidents and touch on the related topics is also recommended. These aim to notify and provide parents with information about domestic safety and to raise people’s awareness of the problem.
Furthermore, campaigns should be held for patching up the relationship and bridging the gap between people in the neighbourhood. Most importantly, launching such campaigns helps build an intimate network in the community. Through this network, people would be able to call for help and be less embarrassed to offer help. In this way, incidents of child negligence can be effectively avoided.
All in all, concerted efforts from government and families are invariably needed for cracking down incidents of child negligence. It is time to act before more regretful accidents hit the headlines again.
Yours faithfully,
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