It's not easy to be a parent, the same way it's not easy to be a child. We all have to pass through these stages in life, we have to pass through childhood to become an adult. But we can’t become an adult trying to skip childhood.
This is why adults tend to oversee and relate better when it comes to guiding and counseling a child or those below their age. They have more exposure and experience.
Parenting is of different kinds and I think we know the different types of parenting we have. The authoritative, the authoritarian, permissive, and the neglectful. It’s a choice to make and one can choose to be a mix of all.
The worst among them is the neglectful type of parenting. In the end, the child might have to lay a curse on their parents for giving them such a lifestyle.
And as for the authorities, one is okay, and the other is kinda harsh to some extent. At least there are some points in the kid's life when they need to make their own decisions when they need to find their path so giving commands to them at that stage is not a way out. Even as parents we should practice more guidance than command.
I was in a chat with a friend of mine when she told me about how strict her parents were when she was younger. Her dad is a well-disciplined man who doesn’t tolerate any form of indiscipline. That was a nice one from him. But little did he know that there is a stage where beating and scolding should be stopped.
She added that at some point when she finally gained freedom, only God helped her and not the discipline she got from home anymore because she almost got wild at the advantage of freedom. She was unchained from her shackles. But she wasn’t swayed.
As parents, there are some stages where we need to sit our kids down and let them know what is right from wrong, we should try as much to give them the audience and closeness so they can freely ask questions about themselves and their lives from us as parents.
But there are some instances when discipline will continue till the child gets to understand better the reason why they got such attention. Until they become matured enough to realize their mistakes and take the right path.
Instances whereby the child proves to be a stubborn one, when they choose not to follow the path that will grant them success, instead they prefer a path of destruction to their existence. In this case, being permissive won't work, but strict discipline would do.
My parents are disciplinarians and I appreciate them for the guidance they gave us when we knew nothing, it turned us into who we are today. When I see some other kid of my age going astray, doing illegal stuff, and many more immoralities. All I can think of is that if I wasn’t disciplined and cautioned maybe I might have ended up thinking those wrong paths are the best.
Age and generations keep evolving, we can't tell what the next generation to come will look like, but I will try as much not to be too strict on my kids, but let them know what discipline is all about.
This is my response to the HIVE LEARNERS weekly prompt in the hive-learners community for the Week 158 Edition 1 and the topic to be discussed is THIS IS DISCIPLINE
