Curfew requires people to remain indoors between specified hours, mostly at night. This can be either imposed in a community or, for the purpose of this discussion, in homes. In our society, we fear the most for the teenagers, who due to recklessness caused by youthful exuberance tend to place themselves in precarious situations. They tend not to see dangers in situations connected to their love for fun time offered by night life.
The family unit as the most important union in a society has a very big role to play here. Communication, trust, morals and most importantly, love are the key elements that form the bond which should exist among parents and their children or wards though the journey of life. When all these have been imbibed as the foundation from childhood, they lead to respect, a sense of responsibility and genuine understanding between the parents and their wards.
Most parents believe curfews reduce the risk of their teenage wards getting into trouble thus, they impose a time limit on night activities as a means of ensuring safety for them and peace of mind for the parents in return. The idea being that if a child is at home by a certain hour of the night, the likely nocturnal dangers can be avoided.
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However, many teenagers have a set time they have to be at home by their parents, usually each parent has different deadlines set for their wards based on individual level of responsibility and trust. Many people argue whether this solves anything. We feel that a parent sets curfew basically for the protection of their children. But if trust is established between parents and the child, the curfew won’t be necessary, because that child would feel a sense of responsibility. In other words, if the child is going to be late, the child is supposed to call the parents to tell them, so they won’t be worried.
Although, there are a number of pros and cons to enforcing curfew. The latter as an instance, makes the youth feel their freedom is taken away. The more you require a youngster to remain indoor, the more they want to know or explore the fun offered at night . For example, a mother sets an 8:00 pm curfew for her eighteen-year-old daughter which she follows, but because of the curfew, she doesn’t know what it feels like to be out after 8:00 pm on her own. The daughter is likely to go out once she finds any opportunity to do so, especially if she does not know the reason behind the curfew.
Nevertheless, curfew can make teenagers start lying to parents about their whereabouts. If a parent that is not at home calls her child to know his or her whereabouts, and instead of the daughter to tell her she was running late, she might lie and switch off her phone. Had it been a curfew wasn’t set, there wouldn’t be any fear or act of lying to cover up the fact that she wasn’t at home yet. Has curfew helped the mother offer a semblance of protection for both parties?
Finally, teens still do what they want in reality no matter the restriction. However, I believe curfew should be set for teens based on their individual level of responsibility and trust levels.
- By Abiola, Mariam, Babcock University, Mass Comm.
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