DEBORAH OCHENI 
The holiday is coming to an end and the pupils will be returning to school this week. However, while some parents are happy to have had another opportunity to bond with their children, others are eager to send them back to school because their presence at home had become a challenge.
The holiday affords parents the opportunity to access how well their children are doing in the academics. But during the holidays, many parents have complained about the struggles they go through daily to keep the children away from engaging in rough plays.
Different folks
Racheal Peter, a mother of three children told Inside Abuja that the break is an opportunity for her to access how her children are doing in school and to also find out in a motherly way if the children keeps to her counsel.
“I counsel my children, especially my daughter, against keeping wrong company in school. She attends a boarding school and there are risks associated with the school system.
We are in perilous time and the devil is doing over time work and our children are the most vulnerable, so it’s important we continue to talk to them and keep watch over their activities in a time like this.
The holiday provides an avenue for me to access my children’s way of life and to find out if their behavior has been impacted negatively, while in school.
From my findings so far, the children are doing well in school and they are of good behavior except for my last child who is still in primary school that plays roughly, but then, it comes with the age,” she explained.
Robert Ebuka, a class teacher in a private nursery school said the holiday is a good period for parents to play their divine roles in the life of their children. “I am shocked whenever I see parents complaining that their children are disturbing them at home.
Most times, these parents are the ones who don’t appreciate the efforts of teachers, we have spent months with these children in school, just few weeks’ holiday that they have to bond with their family, some are seeing it as a disturbance.”
Creative engagement
Ebuka advised that instead of seeing the activities of their children as disturbances, patents should creatively engage the children in fun activities like outdoor games, learning of skills and anything that will be beneficial to them depending on their age.
“The truth is, children by nature are supposed to play so, you can’t completely take away the place of play from the life of children, when it’s time to play, please allow them to play.
Enjoy the time you have with them now because school will soon resume” he added. Yinka Oluwale has cried out that it is not easy coping with his three children at home because of the challenge of keeping them in check throughout the day.
“These children are difficult to stay with all day long, they make me talk a lot and I don’t like that but if they are in school one will be relieved until their return. Each time the three of them are on break like this, I learn to appreciate their teachers who have more number of children to control while in school.
It’s not easy trying to correct them and if you ignore then, they may injure themselves in rough play,” he said.
Filial bonding
However,Rebecca Elijah is having a good time bonding with her two children during the holidays. “I have for long waited for this holiday and I have activities planned out to engage the children for the holiday period to be worthwhile and fun for us.
Since the holiday, I am free from school runs and waking up early in the morning to prepare their meal. We are bonding as a family and the children are helping me out with domestic chores thereby making life easy and enjoyable for me.
Part of the things we do this period is family time out, where we take the children to recreational centres to have fun. The smile on their faces each time we go out fills my heart with so much joy. At times they follow me to my office and its totally fine because they are of good behavior.
I enjoy my children’s company more than anything else,”she said. . Joel Ikani, father of four children sees the holiday as a golden opportunity to be with his children. “These children don’t have forever to be with us so any opportunity we have to have them at home with us, we cherish it.
We are happy to have them and they can never be a burden to us although, we discipline them once in a while but we love them dearly and we try the much we can to ensure that we have good time during this holiday, even as we pray that God gives us better means of income to take good care of them.
Martha Shiga, mother of two boys said she cannot wait for school to resume because of the hassles of keeping children at home.
“I just can’t wait for school to resume because these children have turned me to a talkative these few days and my activities have been slowed down a bit this period but that is totally fine, I have to watch over them because I don’t believe in leaving my children with other people, what I do normally is to apply for leave whenever they are on break so that we can have good time together but then I can’t be on leave throughout their holiday period so, for days I go to work, I have to close earlier than our closing time thereby limiting my speed at work,” she said.
Home lessons
Pamela Ego, class teacher advised that parent should engage their children in home lessons in order to keep them up to date “The mistake some parents make is keeping their children at home doing nothing and as such, they tend to forget all that they have learnt in school.
Children who are engaged in home lessons do better at resumption than those who do not.
I understand the economic situation of things in the country but it will be most beneficial to engage children in home lesson during holiday so that they don’t forget all that they have learnt,” she said.
