**7. The mother**

Presently mothers are not often seen in the house as they used to be. It must be emphasized that the involvement of more mothers in the modern labour force, deprives the children as well as the whole family of the daily love and care so necessary for proper child rearing and development.

During infancy, the child is breastfed for a longer time as compared to this modern time. This, it is believed, develop a bond between the baby and the mother. As the child grows, he/she sees the virtues being exhibited by the mother and all of these enhance good parenting.

African culture and values see the mother as the keeper of the house. She is a housewife and makes sure that as the father is the bread winner, she must cater for all the domestic aspect of the children. Currently, there has been a paradigm shift. Since our day to day lives many of us are overstretched, we sometimes approach parenting tired and overwhelmed and as a result leave the children to the neglect of house helps and caretakers. This reduces the amount of time parents should spend with their wards. It should be stressed that even when the extended family is no longer in function, parents especially mothers, should be around to help bring up the child in a responsible manner.

have been bathed, eaten and goes to work around 5:30 or 6 O'clock am. She spends the whole day at work and comes home when sometimes the children are asleep. These often times result

Parenting and Culture – Evidence from Some African Communities

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From the factors given with regards to parenting, it would be noted that African culture contributes immensely in the upbringing of young people. This exposition is calling on our African nuclear families to rise up if they have completely neglected the extended family. The extended family is tearing apart especially in our bigger, busy cities. Nuclear families should make it a point to visit their hometowns and patch up with their extended families. Parents

It is recommended that parents should endeavour to visit the old stories, make time and narrate them to their children. During my childhood school days I remember when it is story time; we take turns in the classroom to narrate these folktales to ourselves. Presently, the stories are rather the foreign ones we read. I believe our teachers should be reminded of this practice so the children can have rich cultural training. Again, curriculum developers should be reminded

There is a statement in the Ghanaian language which says that whenever you neglect or abandoned something and later you go back for it; it is never forbidden. Meaning, you can still revisit whatever you neglected. It then behoves on our law makers and cultural authorities, to make sure that puberty rite is again established. Our parents and community leaders should make sure that every growing child, entering into the adolescent stage has undergone this

Working mothers and housewives; in as much as there is so much to be done at home and also at the workplace, please do endeavour to make time for the children. Some parents have so much to do that during vacations and weekends when the children are supposed to spend time with them, they allow these children to go for extra tuition which sometimes is unneces‐ sary. These busy schedules of parents have influenced private schools to organise so many activities for the children that they are not able to socialise properly and also stay home and

African culture is rich. We should not neglect it out rightly because it is that which makes us Africans. Let us embrace our good parenting practices so we can nurture responsible youth

should frequently introduce their children to their extended families on both sides.

to revisit the times some of the stories were included in the reading books.

in the children not being well fed, and also developing bad habits.

**9. Recommendations**

event.

learn at the feet of their parents.

**10. Conclusion**

for the African continent.

#### **7.1. Relevance**

The mother serves as a support to the child especially, when the extended family is not around.
