Balancing work, child care stressful

SILINDILE Vilakazi has found a painful solution to avoid her daughter being left alone for hours while she is away working. She has sent her child to live with her mother in KwaZuluNatal while she works in Johannesburg.

Vilakazi is one of hundreds of single mothers in Gauteng faced with the challenge of balancing work and taking care of their children. According to Lynne Cawood, director of Childline, the majority of calls they receive from children who report neglect say they are being neglected by their mothers.

“This could be because it becomes difficult for single mothers to balance the stresses of having a low-income job and giving their children enough attention and proper care at the same time,” Cawood said.

According to Childline’s provincial statistics, there were 1.08 million children in Gauteng living with only their mothers, who are also often the only breadwinner.

Vilakazi said she sometimes feels like a bad mother for sending her daughter away.

A single mother with two children aged six and nine, who asked to remain anonymous, said: “I am forced to leave my children alone. It is not easy, I have to be at work at 7am, but I only arrive at 7.30am because I do not leave the house until my children have had breakfast, and I personally get them ready for school.

“After school they have chores to do until I come home at 6pm.”

The main factors behind neglect were reported to be child abandonment and deliberate emotional or physical neglect.

This suggests that family relationship problems, behavioural issues and other social support concerns play a large role in causing the neglect of children.

Neglect is not the only problem children in Gauteng face, Cawood said.

Rape, exposure to pornography, abandonment, physical abuse and emotional abuse are common at the Childline crisis line.

“On the Childline crisis line we receive almost 400 000 calls a year from children reporting either physical abuse or sexual abuse, ” said Cawood.

She said abused children were more likely to face problems such as depression and lack of concentration in their adult life.