Three sisters aged 12,14 and 16 jumped from the balcony of the 9th floor and died. It is believed that they were addicted to a Korean App or task game. The girls did not attend school, and they were mostly in the room playing games. (The Times of India 4 February 2026) The Bible teaches: “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6)
Teaching: Most parents lack the skills to teach and train their children. For some children, smartphones become parents, entertainers, companions, and even shepherds. When the responsibility is not taken seriously, they fail their children, society and nation. Some parents think that school is responsible for teaching discipline to their children. Hence, they neither take an interest nor invest in their children.
Training: Training is teaching plus imbuing discipline. Good habits should be reinforced, bad behaviour must be exposed, punished and corrected. In some homes, fathers think mothers would do that, and some mothers think it is the father’s responsibility. Hence, children grow up without discipline and moral values and become selfish.
Modelling: Parents must be a worthy model for children to follow and imitate. If parents are selfish and do not give adequate attention to the emotional, psychological and mental needs of the children, it puts children in vulnerable positions.
Supervision: Good parenting is not about providing gadgets, toys, and what the children demand. Parents who are stewards make sure the children are using what is given to them wisely and profitably. If parents are unaware of what children do with their smartphones for many hours in the corners of their rooms or on their beds, they are encouraging them to do unwanted and even wicked things.
School: The teenagers who committed suicide did not attend school for two years or more. When the Law of the land made it mandatory to go to school, parents did not bother about their children’s schooling. Glued to smartphones, guided by dangerous games, and socially alienated, they lived in the virtual world and committed suicide.
Am I a good and Godly parent?