Üsküdar Üniversitesi Founding Rector, Psychiatrist Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan, was a guest on the 'Bilmedikleriniz' (Things You Don't Know) program broadcast on TGRT Haber. Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan, commenting on the 'Child-Free Restaurant' topic, stated; "Globally, we are going through a difficult period. Covid-19 is a challenge of life. Children will also face this, live through it, learn protection, defense, and distance. In other words, they will learn that their freedoms are not limitless. They will learn that their sense of responsibility extends to other people, to life, and to nature. For them to learn these things, children need to be in the midst of life."
"We don't have the right to isolate children and harm their socialization"
Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan, mentioning that the concept of family in Turkey could be damaged by such a decision; "Due to the difficulties brought by modern life, families can only get together on weekends. During the weekdays, parents are usually at work. Therefore, the time they spend sitting together at home is limited. What we most recommend in child psychiatry is quality togetherness. Quality togetherness means having a period where mutual eye contact is established, where they are active listeners to each other, and where they spend time together. Since those five weekdays are very busy, families usually postpone this to the weekend. Therefore, if a new form of life emerges in restaurants, such as 'children go separately, parents go separately,' it won't work. For the pleasure of adults, for adults to eat comfortably, I do not find depriving children of social environments pedagogically healthy, nor do I find it right. We do not have the right to isolate children and harm their socialization. For this reason, even the fact that this is a topic of discussion seems strange to me." he stated.
"Children will learn life by experiencing it"
Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan, emphasizing that nothing can be achieved by excluding children from the environment; "To my knowledge, there is no instruction or decision for this to be the case. It's not possible to implement such a thing, nor is it right. Because children will learn life by experiencing it. Globally, we are going through a difficult period. Covid-19 is a challenge of life. Children will also face this, live through it, learn protection, defense, and distance. In other words, they will learn that their freedoms are not limitless. They will learn that their sense of responsibility extends to other people, to life, and to nature. For them to learn these things, children need to be in the midst of life." he explained.
"All of these are sociological problems"
Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan, speaking about the impact of a decision made against children on Turkey; "This means that there is now an attitude, a stance, against new generations, against young children. If such a decision remains limited to a few sites, perhaps there is no harm, but imagine if it becomes widespread. This is a decision that will harm the ship of Turkey, harm our cultural transmission. Such a decision cannot be scientifically approved. It might be considered within the bounds of freedom, but it is very dangerous for raising healthy children. I spoke with the District Governor of Üsküdar recently. I asked him for the student statistics in primary and secondary schools. He said, "I've been here for four years. When I started, the number of secondary education students was ninety-six thousand. This year it dropped to ninety-one thousand." The number of secondary education students has decreased. So, our population is also declining right now. Therefore, all of these are sociological problems." he stated.