Wendy has been poorly (I think I gave her whatever it was that I have been suffering with this past month - we are business partners, we share and share alike!), so I ran the event on my own.
I met a really lovely lady called Jacky and we hit it off straightaway, having some similar views, the main one being that young adults should leave school at 14, not 18, as is being planned. I will talk about this is another blog!
However, what was particularly interesting, was our views on the lack of ceremony for young people to move from 'child' to 'adult'.
Certainly, where children are brought up within a faith, there are ceremonies, and yet the number of people moving away from religion, means that many young people are not always acknowledged by society as having made that transition - and indeed when does it occur?
What was even more interesting about this discussion, was what happened to me the following day.
One of my daughters' friends came around, and whilst we waited for her to get sorted out, the young lad started to talk about what he was going to do that day - nothing, just wander around. This was not the first time I had heard that this is what he did. What bothered me most, was the fact he is a lovely lad, one who, for some reason just seems to lack direction and motivation. What he needed was a someone who would inspire and motivate him, which despite our efforts as parents, is not what we are good at.
When we had Getrude Matshe in talking at a recent Community Event, she talked about the tribal culture, where everyone was responsible for the upbringing of a child - there seems to a lesson in this for us I think.
The biggest challenge of course is for parents - with the pressure to work, and the increasing rise of the 'me' culture, it is becoming incedibly difficult to know what to do for the best. Parenting is definitely not an easy option, and more guidance needs to be available for them
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