Poverty and Parenting - Big Risk

having children is definitely everyone’s right. But when the basic conditions needed to afford raising a child are not present, it becomes unfair to exercise this right, because of the implications. In my country, Mozambique, it is still pretty common to find couples who are still in their teens and early 20s raising children. The idea of an early marriage coupled with having a child in poverty is a burden and I am definitely against it. Most teenage or young parents lack the basic financial stability to ensure decent and consistent provisions to raise their children.

This common trend forces parents to raise their children in remote and rural areas or in urban slums that expose them to squalid conditions. In such cases, the parents end up denying their children’s basic needs, thereby overshadowing the children’s chances of attaining a brighter future. Financially deprived parents are often unable to pay attention to the importance of parental care. This results in children missing the lessons of personality development from their first teaching unit, which is the family. In my opinion, children raised in poverty are more likely to become social misfits even as adults.

The effects of raising children in poverty later becomes a socio-economic burden of the country, which has to increase social welfare programs to make up financially what the parents failed to provide. With this in mind, I delayed having children until later in life when I had completed university and was established financially.

I believe that in order to raise a child, a parent must have the financial means to provide adequate food, healthcare, and good education - from kindergarten through to university.