The riskiest thing any parent can do is to entrust their child’s care to their teachers fully. Notice that I said ‘fully’.

That other people may not have your child’s interest at heart is one thing to comprehend. However, I’m here to turn your neck the other way and give more focus to your child.

Children have a way of judging character and testing your resilience over their behaviour from a young age. The terrible, I mean terrific twos sounds familiar, right? Notice how they peek at you when they pull off their stunts, hoping you react the way they want you to?

It’s no different when they are older.

What are their needs?

I’ve once seen a parent cause fracas in school over claims that her child was mistreated. It took our director’s intervention to prevent the parent from hitting the teacher, only to find out that the child was lying to get his mother’s attention.

It turned out that the child was a top performer and related well with his teacher. Another girl tricked me out of her lunch fee with lies that her mother would refund me, only to find out that her mum had brought her some food from home.

I’ve handled cases where a child tricks their friend into sharing their meal only for them to spend their lunch money on snacks on their way home in the evening. Others save the money to buy items their parents take too long or refuse to buy them.

Watch what they watch

And then there’s the lot that is exposed to television and social media. Once, during a sleepover, I busted my nephew watching a movie late at night with the volume set low. I never got to see what he was on to, but he was guilty.

Children are smart. They can block adults from accessing what they share on social media statuses and live different lives from what we imagine. But parents are smarter. So, let’s draw them closer and nurture them right.