Sacrifice of being a parent

Earlier today I saw a tweet about a Nigerian celebrity who said another Nigerian celebrity has helped him more than his own mother and then later today, I saw this video where an interviewer had asked this man a question, one that gave birth to a reply that moved me.

_{Photo by Annie Spratt}

It was as if the universe was trying to tell me something by showing me two sides of a coin, one side showing someone who doesn't appreciate their parent well enough (although I believe they must have their reasons) and the other side showing me someone who appreciates and probably would never forget the sacrifices made by his parents towards him.

The interviewer had asked the man what one experience shaped his life and this man had gone ahead to tell the story of the day he came back from school many years ago because he needed some money for school from his dad but his dad had no money. He said his dad was building his house at the time and the man had gone inside and brought out some of the building materials that he hadn't used yet, sold it right in the presence of his son and gave him the money to take back to school. He said that was the day he learnt what true responsibility was from his old man.

That answer made me think deep about the many sacrifices parents do for their kids out there that are not really appreciated. It made me feel sad because I remember back in the day while I was still in high school and things were tough for us at home, whenever my dad was about going out and he asks me to clean his shoes for him, I would get sad everytime because I noticed he was always wearing the exact three different pairs of shoes all the time, this wasn't because he was too broke to buy new shoes for himself but because every penny he had at the time, he was putting it into us, making sure we went to school and that when we're back from school, that there was foods on our table to eat.

And most times it doesn't even have to be money related, there are a lot of sacrifices that our parents do for us that we overlook sometimes because some of us has this mentality that they have to do it because they're our parents, forgetting that they do it because they love us and because they're responsible parents.

I say responsible parents because there are parents out there who aren't responsible and don't really care that much about their kid. So thinking that they do what they do only because it's their job is wrong, they do it out of love, pure love and every once in a while, it wouldn't hurt for us to call them or just show our appreciation for all they did (and probably are still doing) for us.