May his children wander about and beg, seeking food far from the ruins they inhabit! – Psalm 109:10
One of the worst curses on a family is that where the children of the household wander about. Wandering and rebellious kids have been frowned upon from biblical times.
Deuteronomy 21:18 to 21 paints a grim picture of how such children were looked upon then.
“If any man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father or his mother, and when they chastise him, he will not even listen to them, then his father and mother shall seize him, and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gateway of his hometown.
“And they shall say to the elders of his city: ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey us, he is a glutton and a drunkard’.
“Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death; so you shall remove the evil from your midst . . . .”
Of course, we do not recommend this for dealing with disobedient children in our midst, or the “many girls wandering because they are promiscuous . . .” as Magistrate Barbara Cooke-Alleyne has observed.
But, as Ms Cooke-Alleyne herself intimates, our young need to understand what the law says now about wandering – we added what it said in the Holy Bible.
Perhaps, if our children understood that, as the law now stands, they could be arrested by the police for wandering away from home; for going somewhere outside the company of a parent, or without parental consent, they might be less inclined to escape home for days at a time, causing the national anguish they do.
But more importantly, parents need to take seriously the legal penalty that faces their wandering child, that the more lax among them might truly grasp their responsibility of supervision and care of their wards – delinquent or not.
The question that often arises in cases of delinquency is: can or will the wild kid change? Counsellors and psychiatrists will tell you yes mostly. And that it is worth the extra effort to help these delicate young ones.
But often what is missed is that efforts have already been made by parents and neighbours. The challenge of change is not often that simple.
If the delinquent has been chastised at home, but is still unrepentant to the point that his parents lose hope, then it is time for officialdom: the Juvenile Court, the Probation Department, PAREDOS, the state counsellors.
There may yet be hope.