Foreground: Parents Mr Daniel Kiilur, SU's Finance Registrar with Prof Ogutu of Inter-University Council of East Africa at the seminar

The Kiswahili saying mtoto umleavyo ndivyo akuavyo (how you bring up a child determines how s/he turns up in adulthood)  is very much true today as always. The saying comes to mind as one follows Prof Anne Muigai's talk on "Parenting for the future" (see link below). Prof Muigai gave the talk to parents of  third year students in the Bachelor of Business Information Technology and Bachelor of Commerce held at the University on Saturday, 22nd September 2007.

Over 90 parents, a good number of them men attended the seminar on parenting young adults. Prof Muigai teaches  Genetics at Jomo Kenyatta Univeristy of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) and is the Director of the Institute of Biotechnology Research.

Moderating the plenary session of the seminar, Mrs Irene Kinuthia of Family Network said parenting young adults was tough but said parents were up to the task. "Parents can guide children even in tackling difficult issues like inter-religious marriages and sex education," she said.

"When it is said that sex education should be taught in schools, the implicit message is that parents can't do it. We have to say that we as parents can. After all, we brought these children to this world and nurtured them," Mrs Kinuthia said.

Mrs Kinuthia observed that a home is not a democracy and neither is it an authoritarian castle. It is a loving authority where parents make the decisions that are be good for all.

The parents said some of the values they would like their children to have included honesty, responsibility, respect, independence, humility, sociability, and generosity.

Mrs Kinuthia added that generosity entailed more than giving. "When you do what you ought to do, that is justice, not generosity. Generosity is going the extra mile – it is giving oneself," she said.

Parents were also urged to give good example to their children. "Don't say one thing and do the opposite. And neither should parents impose anything on their children. They should instead strive to convince them through their own convictions," Mrs Kinuthia added.

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