#BTEditorial – Balancing priorities and partying

Too many parents in Barbados are unfairly painted with the same brush of irresponsibility around this time of year, as we watch thousands of people attending Crop Over fetes, breakfast parties and J’ouvert events.

Events such as the Tipsy Music Festival over the weekend that included headliners such as Caribbean mega stars Machel Montano and Buju Banton saw massive crowds that would lead us to believe all of Barbados was feting.

Some estimates suggest that at least 20,000 people were in attendance at the National Botanical Gardens clad in their all-white outfits to celebrate and enjoy the offerings of soca and dancehall for the occasion.

Tickets to attend the event ranged from $100 to $500. In fact, many J’ouvert events started long before the official launch of the Crop Over Festival on July 1.

This week is the time when many monthly paid workers in Barbados will have their salaries hit their bank accounts and they will have to make some tough decisions about what it will be spent on.

Ironically, the next two weeks will also be the height of Crop Over 2023. The list of events is long – Reggae On The Hill, RISE, Dis is Rick, Soca 4.0, the Pic-O-De-Crop Finals, The Reunion, Foreday Morning Jam, Grand Kadooment, Golden Soca are all on the calendar.

Bills and utility payments will also come due this week. This is a reality from which homeowners and heads of households cannot hide.

In our reconciling, many who do not have the burden or responsibility of children and households to run, will make some decisions about how that July pay package will be assigned.

Often parents, mainly women of working class backgrounds are slapped with highly inflammatory labels and accused of satisfying their desire to party, at the expense of providing for their children’s back-to-school needs.

We cannot fault people who wish to satisfy their pent up desire to unleash at this time after what we have all been through during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We were shut off from friends and family, forced to stay at home, and unlearn what we have come to expect as real and authentic socialising, where we embrace, kiss, dance and share.

Before we begin to cast an accusing finger, it was welcoming news to learn that many parents have made an early start to their back-to-school shopping.

For primary school students, the main hassle is securing the supply of books required for the coming academic year.

For those entering secondary school for the first time, there will be a small window to access school uniforms as the Barbados Secondary Schools Entrance Examination was delayed giving children and teachers more time to prepare due to the impact of the pandemic.

As the release of information on the performance of students is set to come in early August, thankfully many parents are making a head start.

School will resume on September 18 and major store owners have confirmed that many Bajan parents are not waiting until the last minute.

They are also bucking the argument that people often act irresponsibly and have misaligned spending priorities. Of course, that may be the case for some, but it appears that many have tried to create a reasonable balance between entertainment and necessities.

“School finished the Thursday, and we saw people coming into the store from the Friday [the following day],” a senior official of popular store, Abeds, was quoted as saying.

“We are the only store selling fabric for school uniforms, and there are two parts to the business. Shoppers purchase the fabric very early in the season since the uniforms have to be made.”

The operators of Days Bookstore stated: “They [the parents] were able to get the book lists early because the children came out of school much later than normal, so parents are shopping earlier than usual because of this.”

Times are tough and many Barbadian parents are demonstrating that they understand their priorities. ]]>