One of the things that make children exceptional and sometimes vulnerable is their pure heart and innocence; children are so free-minded and naive that they can be easily deceived and they won't know they're being deceived because they believe that everybody is just like them
They don't worry about too much, even if they worry they easily forget and continue with their life with joy and laughter. I remember the late reggae legend, Lucky Dube, in one of his songs he said there are neither problems no worries in the world of children, they only care about biscuits and candies. As funny as it sounds it's true!
Last December, I was speaking with my sister on phone, one thing led to another. She told me a story about her first daughter that got me laughing out so loud. When Chidimma was still a little child, she used to place her fallen tooth under her pillow at night, by morning, she'd wake up and find out that the "tooth fairy" had replaced her tooth with a one-dollar bill
She kept doing the same thing whenever she lost a tooth until one day, one of her teeth fell off and she couldn't find it. She became so frustrated looking for her tooth everywhere. She kept crying while looking for her tooth. Her mum, my sister tried all she could to stop her from crying but she refused, she wouldn't even eat or do any other thing
Her dad came back in the evening and met her crying and asked why. Chidimma told him she lost her tooth that could have fetched her one dollar from the tooth fairy. After several attempts to talk her out of her misery proved abortive, the dad opened up and told her there's nothing as "tooth fairy", he told her he had been the one replacing all her teeth with a dollar bill all the while
Chidimma could not believe her ears, it took her some time and more conviction to believe the new reality. She agreed never to reveal the secret to her younger ones. One day, one of her younger sisters lost a tooth also and was busy searching for it. Chidimma, who now knows the truth, went to her mum and whispered " mum, she is busy crying over a lost tooth, she does t know that tooth fairies don't exist. Her mum burst into laughter.
I remember when I was a kid, I used to protect my fallen tooth so jealousy as if my life depended on it. If the top tooth fell, I would throw it to the rooftop and if it was the down one, I would just throw it on the floor, we believed that if we didn't do that our teeth won't grow again.
It sounds funny to me now but when I was a kid, I believed it with everything in me and could defend it with my life. I also believed that if you mistakenly swallow a fruit seed, the fruit will grow on your head
I remember swallowing an orange seed one day by mistake. It was one of my worse days as a child. I thought I was already dead, I cried and cried. Even when people tried to convince me that nothing like that would happen, I didn't listen to them. I continued crying until I got tired and slept off before I woke up, I had already forgotten about it. The innocence of a child!
There are lots of other things we believed as children that never really existed. Some of the stories we were told as children were just to scare us from doing some things. Some girls' mothers would tell them that if they allowed a boy to touch them, they'd get pregnant. Hahaha. Ridiculous!
Now that I'm an old man I remember those things and laugh out loud, but when I was a kid, I believed them with all my heart and even defended some.
This morning I was thinking about it, the only reason why those tricks worked on us is that we were just kids, innocent and open-minded. I think those tricks helped our childhood, they made our childhood fun and also helped us to discipline ourselves es in some areas.
I don't know if such things still exist now, even some kids know more than their parents because they have access to the whole world through the internet. Sometimes I wish I can go back to those days when children were children and adults were adults
Were you told any lie by your parents as a child?
Feel free to share your thoughts and experiences in the comment section. See you there!