Focus: Do you know what your kids are up to?

Last Friday night in several nightclubs around Kigali ran into many school children. The minors were ordered to go back home. It was very late in the night and their parents might well have been a deep sleep. Did the kids use back door to escape or did they get consent from their parents to stay long hours in nightclubs? Some were reportedly found doing things that would make their parents collapse if they ever get wind of it. The kids returned home July 11 for the holidays. There is something different in the air. It has become something common that each time students are back for holidays, they become stress factor. Many students hate going back home for holidays because they feel that there is no independence at home. “I can’t imagine telling my parents where I am going and what time I will be back,” says Uwimana Fred, a senior three student. Many parents get unnecessary ulcers each time they think that their kids are about to come back for the holidays. “We curse it but they are our children we have no way out,” a parent of three children, who declines to be named, said on Wednesday. Frank Tumussime, a secondary school teacher, says students must respect their parents. He says parents and students must get together and talk about the dangers loitering out late in the night. “Men can rape your daughter. Parents must be serious,” Tumussime cautioned. When the children are back home, they have a hard time adjusting to being under their parents’ watch. “Parents just bark at us and some of them are the kind that keep nagging,” another senior five female student who also spoke on condition of anonymity said when asked why kids hate staying in their homes. To some students, holidays mean no more home work and getting away from stress. But for many parents there is a sigh of relief when the kids go back to schools. Businesses boom But students don’t bring only misery. There is always the economic side that comes along with their influx. Those who conduct various business around Kigali relish the days when children descend upon the city. Chantal Uwamahoro deals in second hand jeans in Nyabugogo Market. She says that it is only when the kids are back that she sells a lot. “I make a lot of money. The kids have a lot of money though I don’t know where they get it from,” Uwamahoro said. Agnes Umurerwa sells second hand shoes from neighboring Uganda. She reveals that during holiday, she sells about 25 pairs of shoes and most of her customers are schoolgirls. “When they come back, we thank God because it is now time to make a profit. Unlike the grownups, the young don’t haggle a lot,” Umurerwa says. Ends