It's another week to be able to participate in the creative non-fiction story prompt and I must say a big kudos to the community for these prompts because they have a way of refreshing my memory, taking me back in time which is a good or bad thing for some of us and it certainly reminds me of how far we have come in life to be where we are today.
I can't remember a lot of words that have been spoken to me, that actually helped my life pan out the way it is today because it is actually 20% out of millions of Nigeria family that don't beat their kids when growing up, a lot of people feels like that is the way to make your child listen or be obedient.
Honestly, I don't know who brainwashed our forefather on that but I know we can be stubborn as kids but those beating doesn't really change us and luckily for me I grew up with my mom and it was just two times she touched me with a cane.
My mom tried a different approach, she sits us down and talk to us. She feels that will stick to our head better than beating us. My mom gave birth to 4 boys but back then, it was me and my elder brother and you can imagine how hard it must be for a woman to train 2 boys in the street of Lagos because she is not a full housewife (which means she as to work) and we also don't stay close to any family member which means there was maximum freedom for her children but even though we have that, we didn't turn out to be what other thought we would be because people always told my mom that she was spoiling us but my mom technique prove them wrong.
I remembered on this particular day, we did something less wayward. She sat both of us down regardless of who was at fault or who committed the crime and she said, we can see she is the only one taking care of us. Our dad was far away and no relative from our dad's side comes to check up on us not even a call and we can also see that she does not have a family too. If anything happens to us today, my dad's relative will find her and paint her bad regardless of all the pain and hardship she went through because of us. She paused for a moment and take a deep breath, then with a shaky voice she continued and said that if anything happens, even her own family will not accept her because she already distance herself from them just to focus on us.
At that point, there was tears all over her face and we couldn't do anything but prostrate and begin to tell her that we were sorry and we won't let such happen again.
We were all crying and were at that spot for more than 15 minutes saying sorry and she said okay.
We thought everything was settled and we were about to stand up and she continued.
We know what the whole street does say about the way she doesn't use a cane on us, and that if anything happens, do we know how much humiliation she would face from them?
We went back to our previous position and started apologizing back for another 15 mins, after everything she told us to stand up, go take our bath and when got back, our food was served already with beef and pain reliever.
That alone could motivate me not to commit a crime every day and those words she said that day stick with me till today and just because I don't want her to fail as a mother we had to be good kids.
This has helped me to live a life I am proud of, a life I want to make a legacy and pass on to others. Though sometimes it always hard on me because of peer pressure but one way or the other I scale through it with God's help.
Today mama feels proud of her children because not all those who thought she was too cool with us were able to raise their children properly.