Parenting is a conundrum, a minefield.

Parenting is a conundrum, a minefield.

It is like a sacred cow. Adults love their little darlings so they discipline them by protecting them and they are charged with misdemeanour. When they ignore the sacred cow, they are still villains.

No matter how much biological or adoptive parents or legal guardians, or coaches, mentors or nurturers of bundles of joy do, they end up bundles of nerves and, worse still, the baddies.

Is there a school for ordinary mortals to become the perfect parent or parents? Is there a school that helps a parent or parents to raise the perfect child?

Is there a school that can help shape a family to become a steady, stable and deeply-anchored unit?

While there might not be schools for this crucial need, there are, however, organisations that counsel couples who are contemplating to get married.

They also equip concerned parents to cope with small children, pre-teens and even late teens who start becoming aware of themselves, their environment, power and rights, with an uncertain depth of the related facts, truth or experience.

These associations and organisations are in our midst and are doing wonderful work, but, sadly most of us do not know about them, where they are or how we can reach them.

The Parenting Corner is a forum for sharing fears, aspirations, hopes, frustrations, ideas, hints, tips and stories of both minute and large early childhood and teenage development and family planning triumphs.

The family, in any imaginable form, is the universal cornerstone of any community, society and nation.

- Victor Mecoamere, Special Projects Editor