Parenting

_{Photo by Suzi Kim}

A lot of people feel that what it takes to become a real parent is just to give birth to a child, they don't realize that a lot of other things comes after that, things that will determine if truly you deserve to be a parent or not.

Sometimes I see the way some young parents (even matured parents) treat their kids and I get so furious. One time I saw this lady beating hell out of her two year old kid for something he did and everyone (including myself) just stood and did nothing because over here, if it's not your child then you have to mind your business.

One other thing Nigerian parents all have in common and needs to stop doing it is not listening to their children. All African parent has this superiority complex that makes them believe that whatever they say or do when it comes to their kids is right.

An African father will shut up his kids if the kid has a different opinion from his. I strongly believe that is where our problem with freedom of speech starts from. They hardly believe that they're wrong and even if you point it out to them, they will find a way to twist the whole thing and make it look like you pointing out their mistake is you being rude.

That is clearly a very bad thing to do to a child because these kids learn what they see and then before they know it, they're doing the same thing to their own kids when they become parents themselves. I honestly feel like a book or some educational show about parenting should be aired so that all parents can watch and learn to do better even though most of them will still not change because of their ego and pride.

I agree that being a parent isn't an easy job, but our parents should understand that they can't always be right all the time and that there are times when their kids will say some really smart things that may make them (the parents) look dumb but instead of twisting the whole thing and calling the child rude, they should take what that child has said and learn from it.