Why parents' concerns over the holidays are valid

“Thank goodness. It’s almost one month to go,” my good friend Emily, a career mother of three primary school children told me on the phone this week.

Like many parents, she is stressed by the idea that the children have closed school for two months.

“What will I do with them for that whole period?” was her initial reaction when it was announced that, this time round, the children will be home for 68 days.

Much as some people have been dismissing the concern parents have as farfetched and unjustified, I totally feel the frustration of parents.

Being a mother of two, one school-going, I understand where parents are coming from. The problem, especially for employed mothers, is not as simplistic as parents do not want to buy extra food or spend time with their children.

It is deeper than that. Some people have argued that our parents made it comfortably well whenever we were at home for the holidays and they always looked forward to it because for them it would mean free labour in the shamba.

The same people argue that because middle-class children are spoilt and used to being done for everything by the house girl, when they are at home for long periods they get idle and destructive, which calls for stuffing with junk and all. Far from it. The concerns parents have are real and valid.

So what is the big concern about parents having their kids home for the long holidays? Heavy, I tell you. For the working parents I have spoken to, the issue is safety and security of the children. Ideally, when children close school for this long, they are supposed to be allowed to play outside freely and not engage in more school work.

But with the current security situation - kidnappings and all - we cannot allow our children to wander around aimlessly. We are all aware of the many kidnappings that have happened, some of which have ended well. Unfortunately, many others have ended tragically.

Not all Kenyan parents live in those ‘safe’ gated communities so there is the danger of the children wandering outside ‘safe zones’ and into the traps of people that may want to harm them.

So for the parents I have spoken to, yes, they want the children to play, but because you are at work and cannot monitor how far they play, sometimes they wander into danger. Don’t forget the househelp could be glued to the TV with the younger baby watching Naija movies, assuming the older child is safe outside.

Imagine being busy at work and getting a phone call that your child is at a certain police station having been found by a stranger. See, when children are in school, you are certain that they are safe. So next time you hear a working mother complaining about her children’s presence being a headache, do not dismiss their concerns. They are real and valid.