Don’t alienate your children from their fathers – Mothers advised

President of the Women Ministry of Central Assemblies of God Church in Tema Community 4, Mrs. Cecilia Agyekum has urged mothers not to brainwash and alienate their children from their fathers to create enmity between them.

She said, mothers as nurturers and caregivers of children, had the capacity to create an impression that fathers were dangerous and unworthy especially in the event of matrimonial conflict and once the children internalize those ideas, become prone to low self-esteem, self-hatred, depression and other delinquencies for perceived lack of love from the alienated father.

She advised that they should rather encourage strong and healthy relationship and foster the innate desire of the children to love and appreciate their fathers as they do to their mothers.

These were contained in her pre-fathers' day message on Saturday during donation of items to the Power of Love orphanage at Gbetsile in the Kpone-Katamanso municipality of the Greater Accra Region.

Mrs. Agyekum noted that the overall socialization process and upbringing of children were the responsibilities of both parents, hence badmouthing the father to the children breaks an emotional contact between the child and father leading to withdrawal of affection, belittling and limiting contact with the father.

Fathers on the other hand, should neither derelict on their responsibility nor be noncustodial to disengage their children from them.

She encouraged fathers to establish and demonstrate love, affection, care and genuinely seek to be present in their children's lives to create strong bonds which would increase father acknowlegment just as that of mothers.

Receiving the items on behalf of the children, the Foster Mother of the home, Mrs. Obaatampa Amanda Mensah urged the department of social welfare as the government statutory agency mandated by law to regulate the operations of foster homes, to follow up periodically to know the state of the children after placement.

She stressed the need to visit the orphanages to ascertain the health, moral and educational statuses of the children and also offer advices, guidelines and capacity building to equip the proprietors and proprietresses with the knowledge of the dynamics of the rules and regulations governing the operation of foster homes.

According to Mrs. Agyekum, the donation formed part of activities outlined for the year-long celebration of the 50th anniversary of the church.

The items estimated at about GHC5,000 included bags of rice and beans, gallons of oil, boxes of noodles, crates of eggs, crates of milk, assorted drinks and fruits, vegetables, toiletries, yam, sugar, gari, soaps, bottled and sachet water, loafs of bread and other confectioneries.