Differences in Parental Support to Children

 Written by: Naqib Ahmad Aziz

Most parents in Afghanistan believe all the children have the same rights but some families differentiate among their children and this issue badly affects the children.

Regarding this issue, the writer/producer AEPO has talked to some children, parents and a psychologist.

Abdul Rahim, a resident of Bagrami district of Kabul city says: if parents support their one child and do no help the other, the child would grow with hatred and might not keep love with his parents. One-day, in our village, a father gave 700 Afghanis to his one son for the course’s fee. When the second son asked for the money to pay for a ceremony in a Masjid, his father gave him only 100 Afghanis. The boy became disappointed and escaped from home. After some days, they found him dead.

A psychologist Sharafuddin Azimi, a professor in Ustad Burhanuddin Rabbani University in Kabul city says: Parents' dual behavior makes their children become disappointed and this causes them many problems.

These children feel themselves alone and lower than others and they hate their parents. When they grow up and become fathers, they might have the same behavior with their own children.

A boy, Shahidullah says: it’s a custom in our country that parents love their smallest child more than others.

All families are not the same. Alhaj Mirajan Hashimi, a resident of Nangarhar province says:

I have 6 sons and two daughters. There is no difference between daughter and son.; they have equal rights. All are educated.

Professor Azimi says:

The parents should provide equal opportunity to all children in deferent areas. If one commits a mistake, the parents should not punish him/her in front of his/her other brothers or sisters. These children would grow normally and might pay more attention to their own children when they marry.