Spoiled Suriholmes’ Syndrome

Changing roles

Today’s children often rule the roost, and especially in single parent homes. A son in a single-mother home is oft the master of the house and is quite likely to determine who the mother dates and partners with. A daughter is usually daddy’s princess and is critical to who the dad remarries. And even in families with both parents, children take the greater share of power play and parents are often left to take sides. This is not helped by the state of national government affairs that through need for protection and care of children empowers the children to dictate their lifestyles.

Children determine what they want to eat and drink, they determine what they want to wear, influence what they learn and the careers they undertake, demand their leisure and the presents they receive, define their recreational styles even if they fly in the face of the rule of law and the freedom of any other person. The cyanism expressed of many 

And as parents have either become career prisoners or socio-cultural slaves, they can do little to be the parents they should be. And in many cases, parents have let themselves and their families down leaving the children to take over the role of picking up the pieces and be adults instead. Indeed, many parents have degraded to drink and drug addictions as well as poor managers of their personal health, financial stability and physical attributes of their lives.

The psychology of reversed roles is orchestrated by the desire of the parents to overcompensate. The absent parent oft goes overboard to please and pay for the missed ‘quality time’ with the children. Alternatively, the worse-off parent may not even be in any position to contribute to the child’s welfare.

Genesis of only child syndrome

The UK Child Statistics show that there has been a growing trend towards few number of children per household. 2011 statistics show that nearly half of all UK families with dependent children had just one child while less than 20% had more than three. Elsewhere in Europe, the trends might be the same but influenced by the level of Westernisation against the Oriental iron-clad father figures that still rule the families. America breaks the trend because family sizes don’t appear to be shrinking. Of the African Continent, there is great variability in family structure, some with the extended large families while others can not sustain any against the prevalence of killer diseases and conflicts if not from incapacitating primary health care.