I lowkey was scared of my mom because she didn’t give me the chance to even mess around. I was scared she would beat me so just by giving me that African mom eye, I will behave myself. But you see my dad, he was the free type. He allowed me be myself and even when I was being stubborn, he will just talk to me about it and leave it. But as a child with hard ears , the only thing that scared me was the sight of a cane.
Honestly, in my era canes really did magic when it came to disciplining kids. You didn’t even need to use it. Just have it around you and everyone will behave themselves. That’s what worked in our home though, but for other homes, it was worse. I remember a friend talking about how her mom used to beat her so much just because she was stubborn and the funny part was that, she didn’t stop being stubborn. She got used to the canes and so her mom had to just stop beating her. So I ask myself now, until when will parents stop beating kids to the pulp as a form of punishment?
These days, things have changed a lot. We live in a generation where beating will do nothing to kids when it comes to discipline. Thanks to social media and child safety rules, you might even end up in jail for using a cane on your child. In my point of view, inflicting physical pain as a form of punishment on kids of this generation will instead of helping the situation make it worse than it already was. The kids of today have it different from our generation and the ones before us.
They live in an advanced world, the mentality is different and so is the exposure which comes with some level of rebellion. I have younger siblings and what has worked for us in raising them till this point is a mixture of talking to them, letting thing find out the hard way if they decide to not listen and also softly subtly guiding them to the right part. These days, he don’t best kids or even shout at them. You talk to them, set examples for them and guide them towards the change you want to see.
Sometimes, you buy a cane and place it in your hall just to scare them- it always works for African kids and then you sit and watch how they change over the coming day. But in all we do, let’s not forget that kids m learn from not only the home but the people they associate with in the outside world and the things they see. At the end of the day, you just have to pray for the grace and hand of God on your kids because some kids will have the best of training and turn out to be a total disaster and vice versa.
Parenting isn’t a one way street. It’s a journey and as parents, we need to walk it hand in hand with our kids instead of pushing them away from us.
Images belong to me.
