VietNamNet Bridge – Family members nationwide are getting a dose of knowledge of how to deal with family issues and life skills to improve relationships between parents and children.

This is one of the key goals set in the Strategy on Viet Nam Family Development, approved by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung with a focus toward the year of 2020. Tran Tuyet Anh, director of the Family Department under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said this strategy aimed at ensuring family homes a good environment for children's comprehensive growth.

She said this also helped maintain cultural and traditional values among families.

Specifically, the number of families with domestic violence is hoped to annually decrease by 15 per cent. To the year of 2020, up to 95 per cent of families will spend time taking care of their children and facilitate comprehensive growth, both emotional and physical.

Under the strategy, family members will get updated information on laws and policies related to family issues as well as learn and practise life skills in various settings such as while studying, working or public places.

Parents will get training on how to listen to their children and handle their children's issues.

Male family members will also be made aware of their responsibility in their family and domestic work so as to ensure the rights of their female family members.

Children will access skills of how to deal with problems with their parents or friends via extracurricular activities.

Anh said a public network which offers family services and consultancy would be set up to ensure the feasibility of these activities and give support to victims of domestic violence, especially women and children.

Under the strategy, families living under the poverty line would also get regular financial assistance to overcome temporary difficulties and ensure children's sufficient living conditions.

Education and psychological experts also agreed that this strategy was necessary, especially with the increasingly high rate of violence at school and suicide cases among youth.

Senior-lieutenant colonel Nguyen Minh Duc of the People's Police Academy said children were being overwhelmed by too many violent games and information, while their parents also usually argued or beat each other.

He said all this negatively affected the formation of children's characters.

Ngu Duy Anh, head of the Department of Student Affairs said family foundation served as the key factor in determining whether children would form violent behaviours or not. "Parents with impolite and violent behaviours and unlawful routines fail to be good examples for their children," he stressed.

He said parents without knowledge of the economy, culture, society and laws also failed to give sound guidance and advice for their children, especially in the Internet age when information is updated every second.

Nguyen Tung Lam, chairman of the Education Psychology Association said many parents were too busy earning money to pay enough attention to their children. "All this leads them to fail to acknowledge and adjust their children's wrong behaviours," he added.

He said many would also insult and beat their children as popular punishment methods when getting reports about their mistakes from teachers.

These experts agreed that it is time for parents to acknowledge their importance in forming their children's characters so they need to equip themselves with necessary life skills to be good parents.

Today, a festival for families will be held in Ha Noi on the occasion of Viet Nam's Family Day. Discussions and consultancy sessions on family issues will take place.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News