I have heard a lot of people saying, “what a man can do a woman can do even better” but I have a different side to that statement and of course, I am not here to talk about the man and the woman rather what I’m about to say goes beyond and above feminism attributes. Don’t get it twisted, if you do not understand what I explained above then just relax because I will try to lay it very bear for all to understand by the end of this article, the only thing I ask of you is to read through this article with an open mind because you will surely gain something from it.
What do you understand as communal child upbringing? This is a question I will like you to take some minutes of your time to think through for you to understand it properly. This is not a topic we will just rush into without laying a proper foundation for every one of us to have a better understanding. First, I will ask, who is a child? Of course, we all know that anybody born in this world is a child to someone, so permit me to call you my reader a child.
In this article, I will want to describe a child as one who is below the age of 18years. As we all know once a child is above 18years, such a child has gotten to the legal age where he or she will be able to face trial for any offence committed.
With that been said, let me ask another question, whose duty is it to train a child? I guess it is an onus on the parents of the child to train them but what if I tell you that you as a member of the community where this child resides have a greater job to do, what will you say? There is an adage that says “when a child is bad he is the child of his parents but when he is good, he becomes the child of the community”.
What does this adage mean? It is a clear sign that a child is even more important to the community than to his parents. Don’t get it twisted. If a child turns into a criminal, he may not even go to rob his parents but we all know that his community will be his very first point of target.
This is the reason why every community wants to have a child with a good character even though when the child becomes good he may not necessarily benefit the community directly. This is why we must all come together to train a child at all cost.
I have a pen of birds where the chick, the mother hen and the hen all live together. In recent times, I have been watching them closely just to understand their behaviour toward each other especially when it comes to taking care of their chicks. It may surprise you to know that one mother hen can take the chicks of another mother hen without showing any sign of hatred or dislike to those chicks. The first time I noticed this, I felt touched because I believe that these birds understand the power of communal child upbringing just as I have said in this article.
This leads me to wonder if the birds can understand the power of communal child upbringing what about us humans? This is not in any away to compare birds with humans but I believe that we should always learn from our environment at all cost not minding what or where the learning is coming from. I have seen a lot of scenarios where people act indifferent to children because they are not theirs. If you have been in the position to help a child and you rendered such help without any form of double thoughts, you are helping the community and the parents of the child.
If you are among those that will see a child doing something that might hurt them and yet you do nothing because the child is not yours, you are doing the community badly because such a child may turn to become your worst nightmare in future. Children upbringing is and must be seen as a general and collective move. The parents of a child may not be around now and then because they are not robots or God but with you, as a neighbour, friend or even a passerby there should be a kind of confidence that you will not fail to do or correct their children whenever they err. I understand that in these days of modernization, some parents will not want another person to scold their children not minding what they have done so don’t let that make you not do the right thing when necessary.
Communal child upbringing is what the world and our different communities need especially at this particular time and with the emergence of technology and its negative and positive effects. Do not say that the child is not yours remember that if the child becomes a terror to the community, you will get a fair share from so do not close your eyes when a child is misbehaving. Lend a helping hand to the parents by showing care to these children you never can tell when your child will be needing help and you might be very far away.
