June 1 was Global Day of Parents and we can all agree they deserve a day and then some. Declared by the U.N. General Assembly in 2012 to honour parental units all over the world, it’s also intended to raise awareness around the importance of parenthood, its role in providing protection, and the necessary tools required to ensure that children develop in the best way possible.  

Most of us can easily and happily admit that a number of elders were influential to the people we have become. Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, neighbours and teachers. As the saying goes, it takes a village. However, as time has gone on, there have been fewer and fewer villagers per child and the duty of rearing has fallen to smaller groups, individuals and sadly, even children.

This has tremendously increased the pressure and toil it takes to bring up each new generation. Parents and parental figures find themselves needing to juggle jobs, school, relationships and themselves in addition to being in charge of another whole life. It’s a lot!

Think about it, from pregnancy (for those who took that route to parenthood), nappy changes, terrible twos, illnesses, school runs, homework and teenage angst to all the financial costs, and let’s not even talk about the number of times you’ve been woken up from a well-deserved nap to be asked about the thing you said was in the drawer — it’s an always-on, all-consuming job description. 

While the effort needed has increased, a lot of energy has also been put in to ease the demand on parents. Support groups and classes for parents and their children, apps to monitor online activity and keep track of teens and tweens, social studies to help improve parenting and educational offerings like UCT Online High School are some of the things that have been developed recently to take a few things off the proverbial plate.

With that, there’s still a lot to be done to help make parenting easier, and even more to be done to acknowledge and celebrate the work they do.

So, to all the parents, parental figures and voluntary village folk who have given themselves to the healthy and beneficial upbringing of any child, we salute you, we see your sacrifice and hope those you have poured effort into appreciate it and pay it forward in your honour.

Happy Global Day of Parents for 1 June and thank you for every day.