By Tyrone Reid, Staff Reporter"DO NOT do it. Please."
That was the impassioned appeal from the Child Development Agency (CDA) and other children's organisations to parents who are performing the illegal and perilous practice of leaving their children at home alone.
Alison Anderson, chief executive officer of the CDA, condemned the apparently widespread practice as intolerable.
"... It is an unacceptable situation ... people don't understand how dangerous this is," Ms. Anderson told The Sunday Gleaner.
The appeal comes on the heels of the recent tragedy, which witnessed two children ages three and six being sent to an early grave by flames that engulfed their home at Shelly Avenue in Duhaney Park.
Residents reported that the children, who were home alone, cried in vain, as no one was able to save them from being burnt beyond recognition.
"It is just logical; it makes sense that you don't leave small children alone, it is asking for trouble. You just can't take the risk," said Betty Ann Blaine, founder of Youth Opportunities Unlimited.
"The point is that small children cannot be left alone ... that has to be the standard ... because they are not able to properly take care of themselves. If something unforeseen happens in a home, children are not equipped to deal with certain emergencies ..." Mrs. Blaine said passionately.
The appeals continued to pour in like the tears that have been cried for the children that have fallen victims to this sort of neglect.
"We are losing too many of our young children as a result of neglect and lack of supervision for the same insufficient reasons. Parents need to be cognisant of the fact that children need proper supervision," said Mrs. Belzine Prince, parish manager for the CDA's St. Catherine office.
Mrs. Prince argued that the practice is unfathomable and she is yet to reconcile the act with rational thinking.
IT'S UNFASHIONABLE
"I can't justify that. I am a mother of two and I never resort to leaving them alone. It is unfathomable, especially leaving them at nights and locking them up too," she said.
Mrs. Prince says that parents and guardians have to come to terms with the inalienable fact that children are just that children.
Ms. Anderson, in tandem with Mrs. Blaine, is calling for programmes, preferably free of cost, within the communities that offer parents an option, as it is a harsh reality that many of them believe that they have no other alternative.
"When you are a single parent it is just a reality. It is not an excuse for (some) people to do it ...," said Ms. Anderson.
"I don't want to speak to you as if I don't know what the harsh realities are ..." said Mrs. Blaine.
"The reality is that there are mothers who have to work and have nowhere to leave their children. That has to be addressed by parents, community and government," suggested Mrs. Blaine.
