INTERNATIONAL CHILD AND YOUTH CARE NETWORK

18 SEPTEMBER 2000
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HISTORICAL

The theme of your conference also brings to mind Goodman’s partial answer to the anthropological question: "Who is man/child?" The answer reads: "Being the next generation, children a priori belong to society". Consequently, children need to feel themselves part of, at home in, humanity. As far back as we can trace human history, we have no evidence of an individual effectively living alone over an extended, uninterrupted period of time. There has always been community and the law of community. Man does not have the natural weapons of animals: no vicious teeth, not the wings of birds nor the acuteness of vision, hearing or smell which enable him to defend himself or to attack dangers and threats. Man’s weakness makes him join up with others, and this joining gives him new strength. This joining together was, in fact, one of the greatest ‘inventions’ of mankind.

Bonding reminds us of the significance of relationships in the process of becoming. Bonding in relationships has become a popular concept, often (and incorrectly) confined to the mother-child dyad. Children and adults bond with significant others, and bonding during childhood will determine bonding in adulthood, since bonds provide a pattern for future relationships and subsequent personality development.

The concept of maternal deprivation was brought to public attention by Bowlby, an author well-known to you all. He described a wide range of reactions to separation and loss under the term "maternal deprivation". (One major consequence of Bowlby’s influence on child rearing was the improvement in the institutional care of children). One of the world’s leading authorities on separation and loss in the lives of children has challenged Bowlhy’s identification of the mother as the only or predominant object for the child’s Bonding needs. Rutter (1972) emphasises the significance of disruption in the bonding process rather than the adult with whom the child bonds. He considers that the bond between mother and infant is not qualitatively or innately different from bonding between the infant and other significant adult figures – hence, for instance, the present-day recognition and appreciation of the role of the father in the overall development of his child.

Rutter argues that it is the culturally determined centrality of the mother that has given the false impression that the mother-infant bond is unique. He revolutionises our thinking on bonding and allocates a prominent privilege and responsibility to you as child care workers, by stating: "The chief bond need not be with a biological parent; it need not be with the chief caretaker, and it need not be with a female." Rutter, furthermore, is of the opinion that the term deprivation (meaning "dispossession" or "loss") is itself misleading. He suggests that the damage to the child comes from a lack or distortion or interruption of care, and he pleads for centrality and stability of adult figures in the lives of children.

The provision of emotional care remains your primary function in respect of the adult of tomorrow. I applaud the frequent goal-directed and experiential learning opportunities your Association provides so as to ensure the emotional nurturance and accompaniment of children in children’s homes. However, I share with you your concern about permanency planning for children whose family circumstances are detrimental to their well-being and their well-becoming.

Gratifying it was to find in the editorial of the September 1987 issue of The Child Care Worker potent reference to permanency planning, as well as an article on a new programme at the Ethelbert Children’s Home in Durban on both long-term and short-term care — focusing on the crucial question: "Are we parenting or are we treating?" I would like to suggest that you seriously consider the idea of co-parenting the child of today so as to equip him as the adult of tomorrow. You are in fact inferring just that in your emphasis on "accompanying parents in their task and privilege". This policy is in line with the plea made by Maluccio, Fein and Olmstead (1986) in favour of the predictability and continuity of child placement, and the meaningful co-operation between child care workers, parents and children as a major resource for the realisation of these two challenges in child care. Co-parenting promises extended care, enriched care and corrective care. It does away with the outmoded idea of "alternate care".

One last interpretation of your conference theme warrants attention. Viewing and appreciating the child as the adult of tomorrow implies respect for his need and wish to be consulted (age permitting) about his placement away from or back to his family. Festinger (1983) in a follow-up study of the views of young adults who had grown up in foster and group homes, found a recurrent theme in these adults’ comments on their experiences: the importance of consulting with children and allowing them to share and contribute to decisions which are to be made about their placement away from their families. This insistence upon sharing in decision-making, thus, does not come from the academic ivory tower far removed from reality; it comes from the children themselves who have now become adults. We know that decision-making in child care involves crucial issues affecting the becoming, the socialisation into community and societal living, the bonding of children, and their emotions centred around separation. Available information, and the knowledge required for wise decision-making, are not always clear-cut and options are not easily set forth. Those of you who are social workers are inclined to relegate certain decisions to ‘the experts’, merely supplying data. You often feel impotent in effecting important decisions. At present you are the experts: at intake, while studying situations pertaining to children and when sharing decision-making with members of staff at children’s homes and other colleagues. This conference calls on you continually to augment your expertise, to develop professional assertiveness, and to speak and write on behalf of children after having listened to them, heard them and consulted them about their life plans.

This conference is addressing itself to all of you – social workers, directors, committee members, houseparents, other staff members and volunteers. Its programme promises to meet your need to be re-energised in your roles as active investors and participants in the fascinating process of becoming as it is experienced by the children entrusted to your care. May you travel well in your quest for knowledge and the refinement of your skills so as to accompany and lead today’s child into the adulthood of his tomorrow.

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