Tag Archives: parenting

I came across this column I wrote in 1998, and for some reason it felt so relevant that I thought I would share this trimmed version (with a Billy Joel headline). When I quit full-time work, a major factor had been the desire to spend more time with my infant …

“[…] So why should Darryl Smith not be applauded on Fathers’ Day? […] Does his ministerial indiscretion of some years ago automatically exclude him from being a good father? “[…] Ms Dennise Demming’s moral outrage against the Guardian for their temerity, and her seeming inability to say to Mr Smith …

He was telling me about a group discussion about childhood. In an unfamiliar environment, he’d told those strangers that he had experienced what he’d considered a typical West Indian approach to discipline. Licks. When they pressed for details, they concluded that it had been abuse. “I learned about a thing …

As a people, we have dreamed that our lives would be better than those of our parents—and that our children would live even better lives. The harsh reality was exposed with the 2017 MFO Economic Sentiment Report. It showed a decline from three-quarters of our people who felt that life …

I have always misunderstood marshmallows. Never quite got their popularity. In the old days, they popped up mostly around Christmas time, along with butter cookies and other treats. I’ve since discovered that they are actually made up of 90 per cent sugar, but that had nothing to do with my …

In this week’s episode of school violence, we saw a lack of respect for school authorities writ large. The accustomed respect for the office of the Principal was missing. The core incivility of life in our society has been demonstrated for all to witness. The National Parent-Teacher Association President opined: …

“[…] Is it that two pandemic years at home have left some of our school children confused and unable to distinguish between video games and real life?  Is it that the violence-filled ‘entertainment’, often the only type of entertainment they are exposed to in our cinemas and elsewhere, has dulled …

“[…] Many years ago, the United Nations funded a parenting skills programme that was available free of charge to parents of high schoolers. Each participant was provided with a textbook and a workbook. The programme was run over several weeks. “[…] For one thing, I learned that values are caught, …

As a father of two unmarried daughters, Bobby spends a lot of time thinking about their future. His own marriage is almost 40 years old already, his daughters rather less. And, despite the evidence of a steadily growing divorce rate, his faith in the institution remains unshaken. The seemingly clear …

“[…] The pattern here is undeniable: the schools with the highest Excelling to Academic Watch ratio are located in Caroni and Victoria, while the obverse ratio is found in the Port-of-Spain and South Eastern areas. The other six areas have more or less equal ratios of good to bad schools.  …

The news was blunt but not unexpected. The lead sentences (Express, 9 December 2021) calmly reported, ‘Shadie Dassrath was beaten to death in an apartment in La Romaine last Friday morning. An autopsy done on the body of the 31-year woman found she died of blunt force trauma and sustained …

Not unlike Shadow’s Bassman, Mystic Prowler in mih head, pleading with people to look beneath the surface. I have just read Vaneisa Baksh’s ‘Sins of the Father’ column. And not for the first time, I have told myself I’m not going to read her stuff. Not for the first time, …