I am at that stage in life where my friends and cousins have been making me an uncle or godfather. While being happy for them and their new roles as parents, I am not happy with their attitude towards parenthood – at least some of them.
I am not a parent myself, but I do know a thing or two about being responsible and looking after young ones. So, I know about the fear you get when the child is throwing up everything she eats and the meds just seem to be useless, but since you made the bed, you got to lie in it.
Shout out to the young parents who are making the task of raising a young soul look effortless. We see you and I personally wish a thousand blessings come to you and your young ones.
There are guys who never want to hear their child’s name being mentioned. Just asking him how his child is doing can cause an altercation between you two.
The very same guy will tell you in a heartfelt drunken state that his father was a ‘b***h’ and he never showed love at home, and then make a promise to you and himself that he will never be like him, but mention his child’s name and he manifests into his father. Who’s fooling who here?
There are girls who will hustle for money to go run around bars and clubs for a whole weekend, snap pictures and make you wish you were nearby, and then they come home and demand their parents to buy their grandchild a tracksuit for winter. Tomorrow, when their parents ask them to do something for them, their excuse is that they are taking care of the child.
Their attitude is even worse – they make everything about themselves. They are the victims in all the problems, and it’s usually: “That guy hasn’t even called me in a long time” or “That stupid girl is cheating on me; she is sleeping around like a dog”.
The conversation was about the child, man – not you.
That also pretty much sums up the attitude of the youth in the country. They hardly take responsibility for their actions, and are the first to point fingers and make the loudest noise at anything or anyone that mentions them.
If you cannot take responsibility for yourself, at least do it for your offspring. You would not want the youth of tomorrow acting irresponsibly and disrespecting you. That could be your child.
I am not here to judge or play teacher. I am just pleading for you to make your child a priority or at least second on the list – and to love him or her.
• Olavi Popyeinawa
• Twitter: @olavipopyeinawa
• Email: olavipopyeinawa@gmail.com