The thing about freedom of speech is that majority of us think it applies only to the government when in reality, it applies everywhere, even at home.
In a country like mine where we grow up learning about our cultures and traditions, freedom of speech isn’t really practiced here(even though they claim it is). The people over here see it as disrespect when you talk back to someone older than you and by “talk back” I don’t mean being rude, just talking back at them maybe to vindicate yourself from a false accusation being laid against you by an elderly person. The same thing applies in an African home. Whatever your parents says is final, you don’t get to have a say.
I’ve seen videos of the way some kids converse with their parents oversees, how free they are with them and how easy it is for their kids to open up to them and tell them about whatever it is that may be troubling them and if their parents brings up a suggestion that doesn’t seem to be good enough for the kid, the kid is able to speak up and bring in suggestions that they feel is more suitable and in some cases, the parent ends up seeing some sense in what their kid says and act on it.
I get that the need to want to feel in charge and unopposed will always be there but then our parents need to understand that they can’t know it all and sometimes hearing us out can be a good thing and that taking our suggestions doesn’t make them less of themselves or make them less of a parent.
Unfortunately, due to the way our parents behave, we end up doing the same thing when we the kids are all grown up because that was all we saw while growing and we feel it’s right thing to do and then when we choose our different careers, we end up taking this mentality into it and then we enforce it on people below us and when those people below us gets to our level, they do the same thing to people below them and the circle just keeps going on and on and on.
So just like they say Charity begins at home, our parents really have to learn how to not feel threatened when we oppose them. Because as long as we do that respectfully, then there’s nothing for them to be afraid of.
