Prime
Adults who carry babies to bars need babysitting
Author: Angella Nampewo. PHOTO/FILE
What you need to know:
- Why do people feel the need to carry children to concerts and the like?
A few minutes to midnight on New Years Eve, I was in a vehicle trying to get home before the clock struck twelve. It is not normally my desire to go anywhere on the night of 31st but this time around, I had a pretty good reason. At the stroke of midnight in many parts of Kampala, mayhem is unleashed along with the fireworks. I had seen this at the tail end of 2021 when I rang in the New Year in the newsroom and then had to brave the unruly celebrating crowds on the road afterwards.
On the night of December 31, 2022, I passed by several happening places of various descriptions. Some of the gatherings were buzzing with the preaching and song of overnight prayers while others were vibrating with music, dance and the palpable excitement of people about to make it into the New Year.
I cast a glance at Freedom City and looked away, dismissing it as just more end-of-year excitement of the kind we had come to expect. However, the place that concerned me the most further down the road was the Pentecostal gathering in Wankulukuku.
Less than half an hour to midnight, you could not move a car through the crowds that half blocked half the road from either side. The crowd outside was an overflow from the already full to capacity playground that had been designated for the prayers. The grounds which were bursting at the seams were also fenced off and gated. If for some reason there had been a stampede, those grounds were another disaster waiting to happen. To make matters worse, many of the people in this pastors’ congregation were carrying young children. Already, the crowds were standing body to body so I didn’t even want to imagine where those children would end up if the unthinkable happened.
There is a question that lingered and to which many people offered explanations but no one seemed to have answers.
Why do so many people feel the need to carry children to overnight prayers, nightclubs and concerts and the like? Someone said it could be due to the lack of babysitters and childcare in general. If they have nowhere to leave the children, they will take them everywhere. Another question quickly followed the first: Why then aren’t those parents content to stay at home with their children if they cannot find adequate care to keep the young ones safe? To this last question, I had no answer. We are increasingly afflicted with the fear of missing out, such that one feels that if they do not go to that overnight prayer or concert, the world could come to an end.
While many have castigated parents for taking children with them to late night events, I am recommending something slightly different. Let the parents be the ones to stay at home.
This will solve a lot of problems and keep children out of harm’s way. There will be no children hanging out at ungodly hours if their parents do not take them there.
You may think that it is only late night concerts and prayers that are the problem but parents are increasingly finding new ways to abuse children by putting them in places where they should not be.
The other day I went to watch a movie that was billed to end close to 10pm but there were people walking into a chilly cinema with two and three-year-olds who needed to be in bed but were instead sitting on their behinds through a three-hour movie.
Angella Nampewo is a writer, editor and communications consultant
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