Some people say you cannot blame parents who did all they could for someone if that person then embarks on a course of negative activity.

Every time I hear the words – "all they could" – I am left wondering just what that means. Most of us have heard the cries of "I gave him or her everything I did not have, and still things went terribly wrong". "All I could" is not the same as "I gave him or her everything ...". Being a responsible parent requires much more than providing things or material comforts of the day.

Many well intentioned parents also experience disappointing results at times; this is not a perfect world. and challenges for parents vary for many reasons, making what is already an enormous task more complicated. But good parenting remains a – the – key element in laying the foundation for a healthy attitude.

It is so easy to say "children today are different" and that there is nothing anyone can do about how they behave. Such an attitude opens the door to mayhem, and a multitude of behavioural problems on a grand scale.

In most cases, a child behaves according to what they have been exposed to, and what they are taught at an early age. That means the job of responsible parenting starts from the crib. No qualifications are needed to become a biological parent, but becoming a responsible parent, involves love, sacrifice, and commitment, even during tough times.

There is another side to parenting that cannot be ignored. No parent or guardian can pass on to their offspring, qualities they themselves lack. In other words how can anyone give someone something they do not have?

Parents without a sense of discipline and its importance are more likely to stumble in trying to steer a child in the right direction to cope with the many challenges they will face later in life. Today we have so many young parents who have yet to fully mature, and while many do their best, in some cases it is not too far from a child raising a child. That is not to be demeaning in any way, but the role of a parent is so important that there is no way to sugarcoat it.

Some of our young men think their role is over when the child is born. Without the slightest interest in the child, they leave the young mother to struggle, while they return to hanging out with their so-called buddies. Every day young minds in our community are lost because unguided and sometimes unloved, they become vulnerable to powerful negative elements lurking in the shadows of life.

When this happens the much larger challenge of trying to rescue and re-direct a young mind gone astray, is a task involving the entire community.

The new Government-proposed legislation aimed at parents of delinquent children, does not so much punish parents as it heightens the connection between responsible parenting and how children behave.

Without even knowing the details behind the proposed legislation, I doubt if any parent will be hauled before the courts, without a full probe of circumstances involved. I am inclined to believe the Bill is aimed at parents who simply abandon their responsibility, leaving children in a sense to bring themselves up. We know that happens.

The result is often angry disturbed young people who have little respect for any authority. No society should sit by and allow children who represent the future of a country, to become victims of parental neglect, without taking some action. If at times a child can go wrong with two good parents, one can only guess what can happen when there is hardly anyone there to guide them.

It is encouraging to know that despite significant economic challenges of the day, and no limit to negative distractions, many parents, and that includes single parents, are pouring their all into trying to be effective and responsible. There are countless stories that will probably never reach the press, on what these people go through daily in that struggle.

These parents need all the support they can get. Without them more young minds would slip through the cracks that are fairly wide these days. It is a major community problem that is affecting us all. The new legislation might help to drive this home.