Don't blame technology for failure of good parenting

The disconnect between parents and their children is widening. The disconnect begins when children hit their teenage years and sometimes even earlier.

Parents and children have been looking for something to blame and that is how technology, the internet and social media joined the narrative but while they might be contributory factors to the disconnect, they are not the root cause and we know it.

I have heard it said before that when you do not listen to your children's problems when they are young, it is unlikely they will grow up to trust you enough to tell you about the major challenges when they are older, for they have grown to believe that their troubles are insignificant to you.

Lack of trust is the root cause of the disconnect between children and their parents and until we prove to our children that their emotional well-being is just as important to us as their physical well-being, we will continue to blame technology for the mistakes we make.

We need to build trust between the two generations and the first step in doing that is mending the broken relationships, then finding activities that appeal to both the parents and the children.

Letter from Feliciah Wanyonyi in Bungoma.