O ye parents !

​It was just a fleeting thought, just for a moment, just that little second, “I wished I didn’t have parents”. 

Hmm,  a stupid thought right?  Why would anyone be so cruel?  
Sigh! I didn’t mean to even feel that way but somehow I do. “Why do I feel this way? Why do I just want to abscond from  home?” 
These are some of the thoughts that goes through the minds of children, teenagers,  even youths alike.

Growing up as much fun as it seems, isn’t easy. You know the saddest part of it?  Everyone thinks we don’t have worries just because we aren’t adults. 

As kids, we felt a whole lot of emotions which we couldn’t explain. We couldn’t relate them with anyone and we just felt they weren’t worth talking about (of course that must have been after a couple attempts of which we must have been shunned) .

    To tell the truth, my parents tried to do everything they felt were worth doing as parents for a child but still I felt totally neglected and completely out of touch with everyone. I was always at sea with my thoughts. No one to share them with. I had questions but I was too scared to ask.

Hmm! Sounds farmiliar?  
Maybe it was just me, maybe I was just too sensitive a child.
But truth be told, there was a point in my life I felt the need to talk. I just wanted to explode. Why does everything always have to be about them? They make it seem like it is always about us, but  looking deep into it you would see the truth in between the lines.

  If anything was to happen it still went back to being about the parents, but is it not my life?  Good or bad, am I not the one that would feel it the most?  

  

This ‘piece’ is to you all who grew up living in the shadows of your parents. You’re not alone! I understand how you feel.  No! You’re not crazy or unappreciative. Everything you feel is understandable.  I know that for those of us, the university is like an escape, a break through, a place where nothing at home matters,  a place to be yourself without thinking of who it’ll be affecting. We might make wrong decisions at some point, we might have slid through the wrong part but that’s okay. That’s what life is all about. 

    

Dear parents,  Ifeoma and Ebuka are 13  and 14 respectively. tyhey are teenagers but they think too. They have feelings. The get overwhelmed with life too. They might not be struggling out there with you but they know your struggle. They see the pain. They hear your silent whispers in the room. 
      But, they need you too.They need someone to assure them that the world out there isn’t that bad. That even when things get bad, you’ve got them.

     Yes, you brought Ngozi to this world,  someone brought you too. In your days you were regarded as adults as at 14. Most of you had gotten married as at 20. Why then don’t you trust us to be able to understand certain things. 

      Right from the beginning, parents just want to live their children’s life for them. They want to correct their own mistakes in the lifes of their children. They want to make sure your life is better. They try to bend you to suit ‘society’. They need to make sure you do not disgrace them. They need to make sure history does not repeat itself. Wow! 

      

   When all of this is on the minds of a parent, we find that instead of constructing and bringing up a dutiful diligent child like they want, they end up bringing up rebels!         
People!  Can we relate to this?   

Hmm!

At a point you just want to scream at them. You start to disregard their constant criticism. You’ve cried yourself to sleep a whole lot of times trying to wonder where you’ve gotten it wrong but now you don’t even care again! You’re tired. Let them let you be….what is it?..Is life so hard??  Hmm!

       

       Parents listen to your children. What are you so scared of? Get over your past and let your children live their own lifes.  Constant criticism only breaks a child and in the cause of breaking a child I hope you do not break their spirits.

Bring the children up in the way of the lord.