knowing your child

My younger son did something this morning, and I beat him, then he did something more silly in response to the beating, and I gave him thorough flogging.

This is what happened; he pushed his brother from the edge of a chair and he almost injured him, so I beat him.

In response to the beating he knelt down and raised his hands up, I didn’t even look at him, then he started hitting his Head on the floor, Oh my God! I gave him a thorough beating, he won’t dare try such a thing again in his life.

kekere la tii peka iroko to ba dagba tan apa oni Kaa Mon.( you numb an iroko tree as a seedling, because when it reaches maturity, cutlass and hoe cannot bring it down.)

The main objective of my short story is this;

While growing up, our parents really tried, am talking about the good parents here, they gave us every moral values there is.

Don’t steal, lie, don’t be covetous, don’t be rude e.t.c be good, be respectful,help people in need,be truthful be kind.e.t.c. Some went a bit further, they taught us that there are consequences for all of our actions.

But it seems as though, those moral values did not guide the decisions of some of us, while growing up, some even see it as fallacies. The truth is, what works on one child may not work on the other.

But I have found out that very few of our parents, maybe less than 5% taught us to,

1) learn about our emotions

2) master our emotions

3) channel our emotions in the right direction

4) consequences of mismanaging our emotions

And this is part of the reasons why the society is how it is.

You have a quiet,easy going, gentle child, you believe, my child is good I have no reason to worry, have you taught the child that standing up for his/her self is not bad?

Or your own child gets angry any how, or yours destroy things when they are angry, or yours is indecisive, yours likes keeping to himself,or yours is the life of the party, happy go lucky, yours is fearful, or yours is fearless, your is quiet or yours is a talkative, yours hateful or yours lovely e.t.c.

And because children are not taught to learn about their emotions, master their emotions, channel their emotions rightly, and the consequences of mismanaging their emotions.

They make mistakes that could have been avoided, or they make decisions in the heat of the moment, that will channel the cause of their lives in the the wrong direction for life.

Therefore, you see husbands beating thier wives, and the wives keeping quiet about it , politicians that are wicked, greedy,and selfish, a wicked policeman, a wicked judge inconsiderate market woman, rude customer, destructive citizens, vagabonds, angry people everywhere e. t. c.

I hope we know that all emotions has the good and the bad sides, so why don’t you as a parent make up your mind to know about your child’s emotions, and teach them how to channel it in the right direction.

So parents let’s say this;
I will learn about my child’s emotions, and teach them to do the same
I will teach them to master their emotions
I will teach them to channel their emotions rightly. And
I will teach them the consequences of mismanaging their emotions.



kolawole Tolulope Oluwatobi