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Too much love for our kids?

Parenteen
 Photo:Courtesy

Last week, there was drama in our humble neighbourhood of Komayole when two women went head-to-head spitting venom at each other. Hey, I know what you are already thinking, NO, it wasn’t because of any man or ‘Ben 10’ as they are referred to, it was all because of their children.

Apparently, one child beat up the other in the presence of her mother for refusing to share a lollipop. This led the mother to quickly descend on the child by rewarding him with a hot slap then went ahead to report the child to his mother hoping for the best.

Little did she know that she was falling deeper into a bottomless pit she dug. It ended up being a ‘family’ fight as one family fought the other. The woman started screaming at her telling her never to lay hands on her child and it was solely her duty to discipline her children. Not even my constant interruption to shut them both up could end their verbal war. I ended up sitting on a stool in front of my house to enjoy the moment.

After all, ‘Kenya Cinema’ had come right at my doorstep in 3D free of charge! Not that I enjoyed this terrible act, it only reminded me of our days. Those days when as a child, you would do anything just to avoid being reported to your parents by anyone because it would earn you a second and thorough beating. Those were the days when a child belonged to the society and not to egoistic parents destroying their child’s future.

Why would you warn your children’s teachers against disciplining them unless with your permission? So if your child fails to do his homework, you expect the teacher to write you a note asking for permission to spank your child the next day? Come on, it’s not like they are going to tie their hands and legs and hang them next to a beehive!

Even the Bible allows us to spank our children, and I quote Proverbs 23:13 “Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish them with the rod, they will not die” Why then are we bringing up children if we are going to limit their respect to us alone?

Remember, someone once said, “A child educated only at school is an uneducated child”. We as parents must learn to teach our children to coexist peacefully with others. If you think you are the only one that can punish your child for a mistake, how about homeschooling and being their teacher while at it?

During our days, even a neighbour would spank you for playing in the middle of the road and you would plead with the neighbour not to report you to your parents. Any adult in the hood would come in to bring peace in a children’s fight by disciplining the offenders and after that, the children would continue playing with no hard feelings. Did we ever die because of the discipline? No.

So why then is this same generation that was given the best for their future life giving their children the worst future? Parents even warn their children against playing with the children of the neighbours they are fighting a cold war with. We end up confusing our innocent children by doing this. They grow up to be rebellious to everyone. Then we wonder why our children have gone astray when they become adults and start throwing blame games.

At this rate, I might just have to build a permanent stool in our communal compound since there is always a new horror movie in 3D every other two hours!

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