My people, that is how I went to the hospital this week with babyJ and you know how kids don’t walk, they run and jump wherever they are going to… This hospital has glasses everywhere, I could see potential danger as babyJ jumped from one place to the other, smiling and waving to strangers like they were old friends… The future of this race was not bright at all and that is how I called the girl to order and after minutes of silence, she gets into to the grove again like we did not just have a conversation, as a tired mum, I finally caught her, spanked her and put her to sit in one place, just when I had finished feeling relieved that the spank will last her at least 30 minutes, the girl just opened her mouth and started yelling, because I cannot call that crying, if she was speaking Yoruba, then it would have been “Egbami o, egbami o,” she cried like I plucked her eyes out! Everyone started turning to see the wicked mother that had inflicted so much pain on her daughter, what was I suppose to do? Should I tap my chest and say “yes it’s me”, should I casually say “oh kids”?
I looked up hoping to get at least support from a knowing mum, the gaze that met me were scary… I saw a white lady with her hands across her chest and she had this look that was so disapproving, her brow squeezed in anger, I was tempted to tell her “SORRY MA” her friend also looking at me, then some of my countrymen even looked with silent scorn that spoke so loud, yet no one supported me. For a moment I felt like I was abroad or am I abroad I don’t know? Then I remember how my aunty’s son was throwing a tantrum in the mall in England, she did not even touch him o but people were staring at her, and how she would tell her husband please don’t flog them in the garden, bring them inside first! Then when we go outside she gives them a code word like “hanger, belt” and next thing they behave for a bit…After sometime I just stopped thinking what these guys might think of me, after all na my pikin, You cannot love her more than I would and if she runs into a glass door and hurts herself, all anyone would say is sorry, some may even say “but Madam, you would have held this child” I’ll bear the pain myself, after analyzing, I squared my shoulders, looked over, caught their gaze and was waiting for someone to confront me…. Hahahaha
How do you handle your hyper-active child in public? Do you discipline or you wait till you get home? Well if you are abroad you better wait till you get home o.
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