Traditional parenting methods from decades ago may not be as effective on today's children. And parents often find themselves parenting their kids a bit differently from how they were parented growing up.
It's no easy task and the National Commission for Families and Children may have a few guidelines to help if you ever find yourself at a crossroads in your parenting journey.
They are working on the draft of a parenting policy in collaboration with UNICEF. Today, Jomarie stopped by during a validation workshop to find out more about it. Here's that story.
There is no perfect way to parent, but UNICEF and The National Commission for Families and Children might have some guidelines for you through their Parenting Guide and Policy.
The project titled The Art Of Parenting seeks to assist Belizean parents in navigating better approaches and methods to effectively communicating, teaching and safely disciplining their children in a world where technology and peer pressures are major influences on their behavior and perception.
NCFC is working on revising the policy to better accommodate the current influences that can affect the way we parent in today's world.
Shakira Sutherland, Executive Director, NCFC
"So today we are holding and hosting the national parenting policy and the national parenting guide validation session, and this session is in collaboration with the ministry of human development, families support and gender affairs with the department of human service, NCFC the national parenting committee in collaboration with UNICEF. So the national parenting committee has been working tremendously but looking at the revises section of the parenting guide we are also working on a newly created parenting policy we need to be structured in terms of how we share and dissemination information in regards to parenting throughout the entire country of Belize. We would update areas such as adding more things or more components such as mental health ensuring that parents have an understanding of the caliber of children we are dealing with and how would we be able to support them, not only the children themselves but us parents as well because parenting is a whole job by itself to be honest. In the book you can find an ebook an electronic book on our social media website on NCFC website, also the public can feel free to reach out to NCFC they can call us we also have the support of the department of human services and as well as Unicef so the public can reach out to us for support guide materials and the way forward."
They are holding consolations with several stakeholders like the Ministry Of Human Development, Path Light, PAHO and other organizations that interact closely with families and children. Their input is necessary for the drafting of this policy.
Diana Pook, Human Development Coordinator
"We know that there are different things like now we have the internet, different issues, bullying we have different support that parents now need so seeing that we updated the guide putting all the information based on what the focus group gave us and now we are doing the validation with the same groups that we did the focus groups in the past to see what they think about this draft guide and draft policy and after that we are hoping we can produce the final updated guide and then go onto provide that policy to the minister and cabinet to see if it will be approved."
UNICEF is also providing major support to the cause, and hopes that they will be able to implement something concrete that can work or the next 9 years or so.
Michelle Mcgann, Child Protection Officer, UNICEF Belize
"So this policy is looking to cover 2026 to 2035 and UNICEF support is integral because we see that globally there is evidence and acknowledgment that evidence based parenting is an accelerator to promote children's rights and to accomplish the SDG's we also see that this lays a foundation for early protection so the first ministerial conference to end violence against children which happened in Bogota Colombia 2024 identified parenting as a breakthrough area to prevent violence in all its forms so beginning earlier at this early stage from early childhood we see that the evidence globally that it promotes children's well being, prevents violence and it is an accelerator for overall child well being."
