Reply to What do you think about DC Police Chief Robert Contee's views on parents' role in preventing crime?

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Reply to "What do you think about DC Police Chief Robert Contee's views on parents' role in preventing crime?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think parents have enormous influence on their kids, but Contee's remarks ignore that fact that so much of the poor parenting we see in the world is the result of generational trauma, and that's a hard cycle to break. I am a cycle breaker in my own family, and it's lonely and difficult. It's worth it, but there are things that can be done to support families in making better choices with their own kids than their parents made with them.

One thing I'd like to see considered is Robert White's proposal to provide free tuition to people willing to get a Masters in Social Work from UDC (there is more to his proposal, but I know this is a part of it). The goal is to create more resources for mental health support in the city. I'd also like to see programs developed explicitly to help adult survivors of childhood abuse and trauma in order to help break the cycles of generational trauma that continue to hurt kids today.

It is not enough to say "parents, do better." Most parents who are struggling know they need to do better. But I know from experience that they may not know where to begin. I think the city could do more to help them down that path.

Also, making people more aware of generational trauma and the impacts on children at a young age could help. I waiting until I was much older to have kids in part because I was aware of the damage of my own history and the risks of repeating those cycles. Perhaps if more young people were aware that the abuse and trauma they experienced could make it harder for them to parent, more of them would seek help before having kids of their own. I know for me, that has been essential to breaking the cycle. Knowledge is power.[/quote]

Totally agree. More resources should be spent teaching parents how to parent and providing support. Again and again we hear parents on this page who are at their breaking point and these are generally people who don’t have trauma and have stable jobs and home environments - now try parenting with your own unresolved trauma and unstable income. I’m not excusing poor parenting but we can’t just expect to yell at people to parent better and have them be better. We need to treat the disease not just the symptoms. Most of us parent a lot like we were parented for good or for bad. [/quote]

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