I heard my dad’s voice bellowing out my name and that of my other siblings. With the tune of that Voice, I knew that something was definitely wrong. With trembling feet, I walked towards the center of the flat were we lived.
I stood facing my dad while awaiting for my tot her siblings to join the judgement queue as it obviously looked like. I didn’t know what we had done but this was the first of its kind.
Well, my dad was the disciplinarian of the family and my mum was the easy going one. So she passes the discipline aspect of the family to dad. And on this occasion, it’s obvious that she has senses a foul okay and had called dad’s attention to it.
Who tampered with the meats in the stew pot? Dad asked. Well, it was a Sunday and mum had cooked delicious rice and stew with chicken. We had been well fed but you how it is that as kids, you are always tempted to get an extra chicken bite.
That day I had breezed past the stew pot, opened it and touched one or two chicken hoping to get a little skin here and there but I knew it must be noticed, so I had to close the pot and moved on with little success.
So when the question came, my heart jumped into my mouth but I know I didn’t do much damage that would warrant a court session. Who tampered with the meat? Dad asked again.
Just when I stood there wondering what could have transpired after I left, my kid sister owned up to the fact that she had tampered with the meat to my relieve. Well, she had actually visited the pot in her child like adventure and skinned the chickens.
Hahaha, she so much skinned them that they were looking pathetic 😂. The result was that dad got a long cane, put her on the bed and gave her some lashes of the cane that at the end, the cane shapes were showing on her buttocks.
It was such a painful experience that she couldn’t sit down with her buttocks for days and I couldn’t help but sympathize with her. Well, the essence of this story is that that disciplinary action carried out by my dad stuck with me and definitely all my siblings for a long time.
There was never ever any case of meat pilfering or stealing recorded in the family again. My dad didn’t spare the rod to spoil the child. We were brought up very strictly and you get physically disciplined when you misbehave especially after some warnings.
That physical discipline goes along way to instill some measures of discipline in children and most parents today do not discipline their children and we have seen more moral decadence in our time more than ever.
There are some children that may never learn no matter how much you talk. Corporal punishment and physical disciplining of a child should come into play when needed as would warrant some occasions but I am of the opinion that it should be watched.
There should be a balance to how physical discipline can be applied to a child to avoid abuse, physical wounds and emotions abuse or psychological damage to the child.
But we cannot say that because we want to avoid the above mentioned, hence a child shouldn’t be disciplined physically when it’s required. It’s also should be to the discretion of the parents to know when to get physical with the child when it comes to discipline.
If a child would turn out well, it’s good to not spare the rod and spoil the child.