© Kamla-Raj 2008 J. Hum. Ecol., 24(1): 51-57 (2008) Parenting and Responsibility: Holding Parents Accountable for Children’s Antisocial Practices E. A. Uwe, P. N. Asuquo and E. E. Ekuri Department of Educational Foundations, University of Calabar, Calabar, Nigeria E-mail: ekauwe2002@yahoo.com KEYWORDS Parents. Parenting and Responsibility. Anti-Social Practices ABSTRACT Proper nurturing of children is the primary responsibility of parents. Parents have inescapable responsibilities when bringing up their children. These responsibilities are automatically conferred on both parents of the child right from the child’s birth. They are expected to guide and modify the behaviour of their child to conform with the acceptable behaviours in the society as well as participate in activities aimed at preventing crime or disorder being committed by their children. Ironically, some parents have failed in these roles and functions. They adopt too much permissive and laissez-faire parenting styles that inadvertently make their children vulnerable to anti-social behaviours. This paper focuses on parents as the catalysts for children’s behaviour. The rationale for children’s anti-social behaviours are highlighted as well as some of the corrupt behaviours parents exhibit. The root causes of these behaviours are brought to the limelight and suggestions proffered for improving the task of parenting. INTRODUCTION Youths are our expected future leaders. In a society where these would be future leaders are engaged in crimes, violence, and other delinquent and corrupt behaviours, there can never be peace, progress and sustainable development. Peace is an important phenomenon, a condition the nation, the world and every individual need. In the absence of peace there is the possibility of instability, insecurity, burglary, thugery, assault, rape, street ganging, drug peddling and abuse, and other vices. In our contemporary Nigerian setting, the authors observed that a lot of people exhibit dishonest behaviours without any fear of apprehension. Some of these behaviours include taking part in bank fraud, taking loans from banks without adequate collateral, demanding bribe before appointment is offered to prospective applicants, money laundering, involvement in massif scale theft popularly known as ‘419’ or Advanced Fee Fraud and getting bribe and setting culprits free from prison custody. In the urban areas, the streets and residences are no longer save, no matter how well fortified they may be. Streets-smart-boys, popularly known as “Area-boys” are found everywhere roaming the streets, harassing and extorting money from innocent people. The youths are involved in cultism, armed robbery, examination malpractices, assaults, rape, violence, substance abuse, alcoholism, certificate racketing and vandalism, to mention but a few. Sadly enough, children manifest some of these antisocial behaviours before they even start school. These corrupt practices have dominated the social landscape of the nation for decades. They have been so prevalent in both low and high places that it has necessitated the establishment of some structures by the Federal Government, such as, the Tribunal for Corrupt Practices (TCP), Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB). Nigerian Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Anti-Trade Malpractice Commission (AMC), Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Inde- pendent Corrupt Practice Commission (ICPC) and others to check such negative behaviours. This prevailing atmosphere has given rise to some pondering questions as to what could have been the possible root causes of children, youths and even adults involvement in antisocial behaviours. Could parents, who are expected to be the custodians of appropriate behaviour in children be held accountable for such behaviours as a result of their laxity and failure in carrying out their parental responsibilities. Do they in one way or the other contribute to their children’s involvement in anti-social practices. Parenting in the Nigerian context entails the nurturing relationship between the parents (or parent in the case of single parents) and the child. In this relationship the parents have the responsibility and obligation to meet the needs