My Mother, The News Caster.

      I am happy to be a male child because it seems it is in the gene of every woman I know to be a talkative.However, I am so unlucky to be birth by one who is a super-talkative, for she does this to my discomfort. Infact, sometimes my dad has no choice than to shut her up. If this gift of talking, was used only within the four walls of our home, just maybe, I wouldn't complain one bit. But farther than our house, my mother has become a newscaster and the only headlines she prefers to broadcast, is the ones relating to how bad her children are doing. 

      Several times I get really angry at her and her way of handling my character flaws. Oh No! I agree being a teenager has open me up to some unwanted characteristics but then all my dad does is scold me really hard inside the house and not a word to any outsider. My mum on the other side prefers to tell every visitor that comes around, every neighbour she is close to, sometimes even my church leaders. 

I guess this to her, is a way of getting them to talk some sense into me and to make sure that they keep an eye on me! The poor woman doesnt know that the more she reads my headlines to them, the more they help her to magnify my matter. Some of them go as far as, giving advices that is not even working in their own homes. Some of these people have children who are worse than I, yet in their discussions as I eavesdrops, I have never heard them mention their own cases to my talkative mother. 

       Some Weeks ago, a friend of mine almost committed suicide, due to her reports of me to everyone, on all my wrong doings, in his words, "my mother has made me look bad to everyone that I am close to, if I go to see my neighbour to play with their children, they end up sending me out with no excuse as to what I actually did wrong. Even the female friend I grew up with that I had crushes on has refuse to talk to me as we usually do, I became really lonely and friendless and just in this pandemic when no one has refused me entrance to their house and no one came to visit me, I decided to just die."

  Dear Mother, 

You may not understand the pyschological effects of what you are doing to your child(ren) by telling their stories to everyone. Oh! do you know that the more you broadcast their faults, the more you paint yourself as a failed mother in the parenting profession. Everybody doesn't deserve to know the good or the bad of the children you birth. Basically they have no business with that. You don't know what they are also facing, but then you make your children an object of ridicule, just because you are not satisfied with what and how they perform or with some of the teenage exuberance they exhibits. Your child isn't the only one going through this stage, with time, maturity will take over and they will be that child you have always wanted them to be. Stop spreading the news, deal with it in the house. Help understand that child till he/she outgrows that behaviour. 

         I also want you to remember that some of us don't forget what our parents did while we were growing. Please be mindful of what you tell people about your children. They are your Children. You birth them yourself. So please be Careful and very soon with constant advices, support and prayers your child will make YOU PROUD someday Soon.

Yetunde Adedokun Writes.

Kids Advocate And Development Initiative.

(NGO) AFRICA, NIGERIA.