SINGAPORE: The Ministry of Social and Family Development’s (MSF) guidelines on parental caregiving practices are intended for professionals in the child protection system.
Responding to a query from CNA on Friday (Dec 27), MSF said the professionals are those who work directly with at-risk families that include children who have experienced or are at risk of abuse, neglect or harm.
The professionals include social service practitioners at family service centres and child protection specialist centres as well as some professionals in the healthcare and education sectors.
“The guidelines support professionals in addressing key areas with families that they work with such as maintaining healthy parent-child boundaries and finding appropriate solutions to their unique circumstances to support the child’s well-being,” said a spokesperson for the ministry.
MSF’s guidelines became a talking point after The Straits Times published an article on them earlier this month that mentioned recommendations on privacy and bathing children.
The ministry said the guidelines are disseminated to the professionals “to ensure a consistent and focused approach to safeguarding children”.
“While other professionals may consider these guidelines when supporting mainstream families, they are not intended to be enforced or prescriptive in nature across all parenting contexts. Instead, they are intended to serve as an additional parenting resource for practitioners,” MSF said.
MSF added that the guidelines took about one year to develop, in consultation with experts such as hospital paediatricians, religious leaders, social workers and the Ministry of Education’s Guidance Branch, to ensure that they were “feasible and practical for families in the child protection system”.
QUESTIONS ON APPROPRIATE PARENTING PRACTICES
MSF said it had received reports or queries from professionals and parents involved in child protection work about whether some parenting practices were appropriate.
In one example of such practices, a parent regularly bathed an eight-year-old child of the opposite sex when the child did not have difficulty bathing independently and had expressed discomfort about the arrangement.
In another example, a parent regularly slept alone in the same bed as a 13-year-old child of the opposite sex, despite the child’s discomfort with the practice.
“While preliminary inquiries did not reveal any untoward intent or illegal conduct, MSF or the professionals involved had to advise the parent concerned to maintain healthy boundaries with their child,” said the ministry.
It added: “MSF believes all parents wish to have healthy and respectful relationships with their children, and for their children to grow up to be adults with positive and healthy relationships with others.
“However, the examples show that sometimes, due to lack of awareness of clear family boundaries, parents’ practices may inadvertently make their child more susceptible to harm in other contexts such as schools and other social settings.”
If a child is repeatedly pressured by their parents or caregivers to display affection, such as by hugging or kissing someone they feel uneasy or fearful around, it could “condition the child to suppress their feelings and make them less likely to report other people who make them feel uncomfortable”, said MSF.
In cases involving families with special circumstances, such as those with older children with disabilities or developmental delays, professionals will work with them to ensure that the children’s daily needs are met and that healthy family boundaries are maintained, MSF added.
The ministry cautioned that “the guidelines are not meant to be rules to enforce or an exhaustive list of what parents can or cannot do”.
“Instead, they serve as general principles to help professionals explore what works best for each family and support parents in building healthy and strong relationships with their children, while recognising each family’s unique circumstances,” it said.
