Olavi Popyeinawa
I am at that stage in life where my friends and cousins have been making me an uncle and godfather. While I am happy for them and their new roles as parents, I am not happy with their attitudes towards parenthood.
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/he eats and the meds just seem to be useless, but since you made the bed, you got to lay in it. Shout out to the young parents that 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 that never want to hear their child’s name being mentioned, just asking him how his child is doing can cause an altercation. The very same guy will tell you in a heartfelt drunken state that his father was a ‘bitch’ 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 that 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 this country, they hardly take responsibility for their actions, they are the first to point fingers and make the loudest noise at anything or anyone that mentions them. If you can’t take responsibility for yourself, at least do it for your offspring, you wouldn’t want the youth of tomorrow acting irresponsibly and disrespecting you, that could be your child. Now I am not here to judge or play teacher, I am just pleading with you to make your child a priority, or at least second on the list and to love the living s&%t out him or her.Say less, think loud!
* Olavi Popyeinawa has a Diploma in Alternative Dispute Resolution and is currently studying law, LLB at the University of Namibia (Unam). He will weekly contribute this column on youth matters. Instagram: niceguy_olavi Facebook: Olavi Longfellow Twitter: @OlaviPopyeinawa