16. Oh no! Childcare is not my job, please.

• Come on! Let him sleep some more. He is too small to go to school daily.
• Not to worry if he is not studying. He will take over my business. 
• Child- Look, Mumma! I have got this prize. Mumma- Oh! Can’t you wait? I am watching my favorite program. 
• Papa to Mumma- Don’t tell me. Is he in class 3 now? I thought him to be in class 2 only. 

These dialogues are so familiar to many of us. In my article “Revealed Facts about Helicopter Parenting”, I had discussed a case about over-caring parents. This case is just the reverse. Here the parents are care-free to the extent of being careless about the proper rearing of their children.  This style of parenting is also termed as  Neglectful Parenting by the Psychologists.

10 main causes of neglectful parental behavior

1. They have an innate nature of carelessness with no role for the emotions even for their children.
2. They have also had a neglectful childhood and think this to be a norm. They are self-made persons and think that their children too, need to struggle like them to learn life-lessons and earn success on their own.
3. They seldom care to go to the schools of their children and may not attend even the Parents-Teacher meetings. 
4. They feel that providing basic requirements is the end of their responsibility towards their families and hardly spend any time with their children.
5. They hardly care for their children’s academic failures and seldom care for their participation in the school activities.
6. Their approach is of least involvement, dismissive, and full of neglect for their children.
7. They are either too busy, too proud, or reserved to mingle with their children. 
8. They feel parenthood to have come to them too early in life and feel it to be a burden.
9. They do not demand or expect anything from their children.
10. For some of them, life is too problematic to care for their children.

10 possible consequences

Children have tender hearts. They look towards their parents for love, care, and support in life. They get disheartened easily after such neglectful behavior and gradually distance themselves from their parents. 

The main impacts can be listed out as follows:

1. They become emotionally withdrawn. 
2. They lack social skills and fail in their social interaction with other people as well.
3. With the passage of time, their behavior becomes abnormal, which peaks in the adolescent stage.  
4. Their negativity rises and may result in their escape by taking to alcohol, drugs, etc.
5. Most importantly, it may affect their academic performance. 
6. Things become so bad that they may not have any willingness for achievement and therefore, abstain from participation in co-curricular or extra-curricular activities in their institutions.
7. They become so emotionally ‘DRY’ that their present and future inter-personal relations may suffer.
8. Some of them may become too aggressive and others, too meek or submissive.
9. Such children may become bad or neglectful parents when they raise their own families.
10. Without proper parental guidance, their life becomes a rudderless boat with no proper sense of direction that may cause disastrous results, at times.

Conclusion

It is required for the parents to nurture their children with love, care, support; teach them discipline, and provide appropriate guidance so that their children become mentally and physically healthy persons who can face the challenges of life with a smile. 

# NeglectfulParenting #CausesOfNeglectfulParenting                                                        # ConsequencesOfNeglectfulParenting # CarelessnessInParenting # CarelessParents # ChildrenOfNeglectfulParents

R. C. Verma

The author has analyzed the causes of neglectful parenting and the consequences of such parenting on their children. I hope that it will be liked by the readers. Please post your views on my mail id: vermarajesh55@gmail.com