Championing Campaign for the “Hurried Child”

A Mother’s Love Initiative, a social non-governmental organisation, in its soon to be launched documentary,“The Hurried Child: An African Perspective”, is championing a campaign on the irreparable harm caused by hurrying the Nigerian child through life process, Mary Nnah reports

A Mother’s Love Initiative, a social change non-governmental organisation, has since incorporation engaged in massive and aggressive advocacy for the society to raise ideal, balanced and happy children in Africa.

It has also been involved in providing interventions and support to children, and also educates parents and major stakeholders in the society towards improving the overall psychological and social well-being of the African child.

To achieve these and more, the NGO, established in 2018 to bring change to the African Child’s narrative, has been using various strategies such as child development advocacy, psycho-education, preventive and remedial interventions, reorientation, professional counselling, films and television series, book series and publications, documentaries, radio and tele-advocacy, and institutional/community support services to relate its messages at various levels of the society.

One of such strategies is its soon to be launched documentary, “The Hurried Child: An African Perspective”.

According to Mr. Uchechukwu Michael Ginika, Legal Adviser/Press Secretary for A Mother’s Love Initiative, the “Hurried Child Syndrome”, is a set of stress-linked behaviours which occur when a child is expected by his parents or the society to perform well beyond his or her level of mental, social or emotional capabilities.

The campaign, he revealed, was inspired by Dr. David Elkind, author of The Hurried Child, who advises parents to let children be children.

“In simple terms: the increasing trend of hurrying children through life, in turn plunges them into irreversible psychological crises. Seeing heart wrenching effects of hurrying the child such as development of unfulfilled children who are incompetent, timid, unstable, stressed, overly anxious and depressed has been a daily reminder for us to call for intervention in this area”, Ginika added.

He stressed that kids are more likely to have academic success if they were not hurried through their early childhood by parents who overestimate their competence and overexpose them to academic pressures.

He noted further that the concept of hurrying the child permeates the entire fabrics of the society, and manifests itself in diverse ways through heightened domestic roles, undue academic expectations and excessive demands, child labour, child marriage and so on.

For this reason, A Mother’s Love Initiative, a social change Non-governmental Organisation (NGO) has chosen to champion a cause in Africa through which it will counsel all stakeholders to take positive steps in salvaging the future of the African Child.

Explaining further his concept of the hurried child and the harms involved in hurrying a child, he said, “To hurry a child through early childhood years is to prematurely restructure the life of the child. The hurriedness to grow up too fast or too soon plunges a child into crisis in the period of adolescence and beyond.”

For him, to hurry a child is to build up stress in their future as a child bears a heavy burden when he/ feel that their performance is connected to the love and acceptance they receive from their parents or the society, and they end up feeling that they are letting their parents down if they are not ‘successful’ as erroneously defined.

Many parents, especially from middle class families, the lawyer said, seek to create “super kids,” thereby pressuring their children into becoming premature adults and making them overly competitive.

He explained further that, ironically, in their eagerness to create an academic prodigy, overzealous parents often create a slowpoke and an underachiever.

When these children fail to live up to their parents’ unrealistic expectations created by media hype, the children become so anxiety -ridden that they cannot perform.

According to Ginika, this rising trend of “child stars” is troubling as it is alarming.”

“We are daily bombarded with news of kids who are yet to get a grasp on life being rushed into stardom by greedy and fame craving parents or guardians through the entertainment and fashion industry.

“Others such as underage ‘business moguls’ are loaded with undue responsibilities. Such social and media hoax do us no good, and most times leave the child damaged and unfulfilled”, he added.

He stressed further that the present culture of hurrying attributed to emphasis on success alone has bombarded children with so many schedules, tasks and expectations that they grow up too quickly.

“They are pressured to learn how to read and count even before they can walk perfectly; pushed to outperform other children in their kindergarten years; pushed to manage adult responsibilities such as running or owning business interests”, he said adding “our primary call on all and sundry is to “let them grow!”

Enumerating the effects of hurrying a child, he said “The implication is that we end up churning out damaged, unhappy, and psychologically impaired children.

“Today, the Nigerian educational system, especially the private sector, has been inflicted with a spell which manifests in speeding the education of a child based on intellectual outcomes, such as reading level and cut score without taking a critical introspection on what is being sacrificed in that rush.”

He warned that though the system is and was designed to reward academic excellence as against other core developmental parameters such as emotional, social, and psychological development of the child, if we continued at this rate, we might affect the child’s proficiency to acquire the confidence and content needed to thrive in school at the expected period.

He asserted that in Nigeria, children are harried through primary, secondary and tertiary education using several mechanisms such as jumping classes, double-promotions, changing dates of birth, and ignoring expected age of entry into a level of education.

“Too much focus has been given to the grading at the end of an academic term or session while too little attention is given to the pathways through which these children get to where they are.

“Parents are also seen defining their children by test scores and grades, and display a show of pride about their wards leapfrogging from one level to the next. ”

The aftermath of these pressures, Ginika said, is having children who believe that they are unworthy, and feel rejected when they do not meet up with family or societal expectations.

Some behavioural responses to stressors associated with hurrying a child, he said, included lack of motivation, indiscipline and learning difficulties.

To curb all these negative impacts on the African child, the bottom line of The Hurried Child Project is to make a case for an intervention that hurrying the Nigerian child has a huge implication on their overall well-being and the future of Nigeria.

Consequently, A Mother’s Love Initiative has produced a film, titled, “The Hurried Child: An African Perspective’, an informative documentary that creates awareness and shares insights on the ills of hurrying the Nigerian child, which will be formally launched at Protea Hotel by Marriott, Kuramo Waters Close on November 19, 2021 by 11am, to commemorate of the World Day for the Prevention of Child Abuse.

Ginika emphasised that the documentary is a media advocacy aimed at reorienting the subtle but hurtful concept of hurrying the child through life.

The documentary is a wake-up call for an intervention to prevent its huge implications on the overall well-being and the future of the African child.

According to the lawyer, A Mother’s Love Initiative team carried out qualitative interviews and quantitative surveys across regions in Nigeria and selected countries in Africa to provide evidence-based data and information on the current state of the hurried child syndrome in Africa for the project – a project which took them about five years to complete.

The project evolved through advocacy and research with the mission of creating awareness and re-orientation to parents, teachers, school owners, civil society organisations and relevant government agencies on the need to be more conscious and attentive to this silent problem reducing the quality of life of the African Child.

Speaking on the challenges in putting together the documentary, he said, “It has been tasking and quite daunting to say the least. Getting people to come out of their shell to talk on the topic due to perceived social stigma was one major challenge. However, many who were passionate for change were able to come out and speak boldly on the subject and share their experiences.”

The documentary is a call on all stakeholders to arise and salvage the waning future of the next generation of Nigerian and African leaders by raising a well-rounded, balanced, and happy child, expressing strong belief that by the use of consistent enlightenment and reorientation campaigns using various media, this anomaly will be corrected.

“This dispensation has foisted on the African child a yoke which is doing us more harm than good. Remember, it is impossible to accelerate emotional maturation. Children may act grown up, but they really don’t feel grown up. They may speak “adult” while their feelings are crying “child” Ginika reiterated.

He therefore emphasised that childhood is a significant part of life, and it should be respected and valued as kids were entitled to their childhood, and we shouldn’t hurry them through this stage.

“We must all join hands to fight these ills’ Let us safeguard the future of Africa by giving our children a right to their childhood”, Ginika appealed.