Sharjah 24: The Cultural and Media Office of the Supreme Council for Family Affairs (SCFA) organised, in Sharjah Cultural Salon, a session on "Preparing future generations for sciences and values".

The session discussed the challenges of the new generations and the families in supporting the values that build the character of the future generations.

Dr. Abdullah Al Suwaiji, Executive Director of the Higher Colleges of Technology in Fujairah, discussed the comparison between two types of children, the “Yesterday’s Child” and the “Today’s Child”.

The “Yesterday’s Child” was normal, had a sense of belonging to his/her surrounding environment, and was connected with his/her family and society; whilst the “Today’s Child”, is a result of extreme luxury and the domination of ego love over the child.

The differences between the “Yesterday’s” and the “Today’s” arose as a result of the different life circumstances in which modern technology and globalization dominated everything.

Al Suwaiji explained that the difference in parenting is the main cause in making those differences between the two generations, indicating that the child is easily affected by its surrounding. The role of the parents towards the children, especially the mother, goes beyond material care like providing food, changing clothes, or meeting basic requirements, to convey true feelings to them.

Al Suwaiji concluded his session with several criticisms, like the use of the English language in parent-children conversation instead of the Arabic language, and suggestions, like demanding mothers to have fewer working hours to devote themselves to raising their children at home, that might help to solve some of the current generation’s problems.