Last Updated on 24/02/2014 by Vivien Ayinotu
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‘I don’t know what you are saying’, the child replied and looked away. She asked him again ‘do you want to become a Priest? ‘I don’t know what that means.’Oh! Sorry, I mean, do you want to become a Rev Fr? Before then the child’s uncle who was standing right beside smiled and said ‘he wants to be an Engineer.
No….the little boy then replied. Priest means same as Rev Fr, the woman corrected the child who in a striking manner said ‘ but you didn’t say Priest, you said Appraised. They argued while I watched from behind. At the end, the woman told him not to tell people especially, adults they did not say a thing particularly when the words sound very similar. She went further to tell him that it shows lack of respect though she was still able to give him a pat and let him go and play.
Meanwhile, the child’s uncle was all smiles as if he was showing off a smart genius nephew, I guess he is, though he went off and didn’t get to observe the last attitude teaching session. At the other end, the woman was generally talking about how nowadays kids talk to adult. Obviously, she was surprised about the way the boy insisted that she didn’t say Priest. Besides, it was quiet loud because I heard it, maybe the little boy is a grammarian in the making. Who knows?
It made me recall an incident that occurred in a friends house when I visited last week. The lady had previously warned her kids not to play around the kitchen being that she was making lots of dishes and wouldn’t want any form of accident. Who wouldn’t do same?
So, the girl was chased by the brother she ran into the kitchen and it happened to be same time her mum was dishing out some foods, turning around, she almost slipped. In an automatic manner, she spanked her girl on the back. I was a bit surprised because she didn’t fall, the dishes were intact and that was a loud spanking.
I turned to the little girl who then simply went and stood at the doorway, she didn’t look like she was going to burst into tears like I expected rather in the next couple of minutes she went off and continued playing but didn’t come near the kitchen again.
‘I thought 21st century parents don’t smack kids,’ I asked. ‘Oh! Not me, I do, when need be. They should know you are their parent and not their friend. They need to he disciplined, or else by the time they get to their teens you can hardly talk to them let alone correcting them,’ was her response.
Disciplining kids is very important as it lays a good foundation for them to build on later on in life. I am a huge fan of good attitude. I think the ladies did well as long as the goal is to inculcate good attitude into children for a better and a greater future generation.
