During a Gleaner Editors' Forum on parenting, held at the newspaper's North Street, central Kingston, offices yesterday, leaders in the field were asked to recommend solutions to help mothers and fathers become better parents. Here are their responses.

Dr Leahcim Semaj, psychologist

Semaj

We need to start talking publicly and clearly and define what it is that we desire of this concept of parenting; in terms of what are the precursors, how you prepare for it, how you do it and define the consequences of not doing it.

So we need to make sure that for the children coming up, there are some clear models that they need to see and understand, even if they are not experiencing them themselves.

Joy Crawford, facilitator - parenting intervention workshops

Crawford

I'm going to use my own value core, which is positive, proactive parenting. The model has to be done in a way that we are deliberate in erasing negativity, the way we speak of self and children, the things that we do need to be proactive.

It's about initiating the strategies that we want and parenting from a dynamic point of view. We have to go back to all the caregivers. Parenting, the way we learned it, was nurturing, people were allowed to help us with our parenting. We need to go back to that.

Dr Maureen Samms-Vaughan, executive director of the Early Childhood Commission

Samms-Vaughan

We need to provide parents with high-quality parenting support. It has to be accessible, provided at times when they can actually utilise it, as not many fathers will be there in the daytime when they are supposed to be at work.

Parenting needs to be a huge national focus. Our whole country is built on parenting. We won't be able to change what happens, primary (level), secondary or further on, until we work with parents and impact those first few years of a child's life.

Dr Jaslin Salmon, professor of sociology

Salmon

"Parenting is the most important thing that anyone who ever chooses to do will do. You involve a life or lives that you are shaping. It is, therefore, crucial that you get it right. We need to provide the structures and support systems to help parents to learn how to parent. What we want to have is some basic elements that are necessary for every child. That is, we must recognise the dignity of the child, respect the child and recognise that the child has rights, and we can all operate on that model and use whatever styles we like, because we have different value systems."

Dr Rebecca Tortello, special adviser to the minister of education

Tortello

The way forward will mean the need for a partnership that goes beyond any government agency. We all have to work together. The NGOs, civil society and the private sector, so that we can elevate the issue of parenting and its contribution to national development, which the Ministry of Education is working hard to do.

If we can get people to understand how critical it is to national development in the long term, we should have a safer, less violent Jamaica. We don't have a particularly family-friendly society right now, there are not many places you can take your family to and spend time with, and we need to create more places like that.