Let your children fight their battles.

An intense quarrel ensued yesterday in my neighbourhood. The quarrel was between two mothers and the cause of the quarrel was their children whom of course, both of them loved.

Now what caused the quarrel is still sort of unknown to me but people say that it was a minor issue that just served as an common reason for them to act out on their long term subtle feud, because that is none of my business, I will just talk about what caused their fight as at yesterday.

Now both mothers have children who attend the same school. The daughter of Neighborhood A is a year older than that of neighbour B who is five years old. Because the hearts of children doesn't breed hate like that of adults, these children are even come back home together since the school isn't that far from the neighborhood. Now, as we all know, children have their own little misunderstandings where they fight one another but reconcile within a short period of time. What happened along the way was that the older daughter of neighbour A beat the daughter of neighbour B so the started fighting. Now the daughter of neighbour A had an upper hand in the fight and injured the daughter of neighbour B, it wasn't a major injury, it is more of a minor scratch. The girl started crying non stop until she reached home. Now her mother asked her what happened and she told her that the other neighbour's daughter fought her, she grabbed neighbour A's daughter by her pinafore dress just as she was about to enter her house, pulled her and gave a resounding slap across her cheek which attracted the attention of the her mother as well as those who were around when it happened. Neighbour A was suddenly furious and gave neighbour B a resounding slap, then they started fighting in the middle of the street shamelessly in front of their children. It wasn't a very pleasant sight as even I who had nothing to do with the fight was embarrassed for them. They were eventually separated and after a series of insulting verbal exchanges, each mother entered her house with her child.

Now while I don't like taken sides in matters like this as both of them were wrong in how they reacted to circumstances, I'd say neighbour A was the tresspassor as she slapped a child terribly in front of her mother over some misunderstanding between children, not she say she deserved what came to her, at least not in the presence of her daughter, but she was Soo wrong because fighting as kids is part of growing up. I remember when I used to get bullied by this girl , Chioma in primary school and when I'd come home crying, my mom would console me. It got to a point when she stopped consoling me and told me that if Chioma ever bullied me again and I don't stand up for myself, I shouldn't enter her house, that after all she was my age mate. I grew a pair after some time and began standing up to Chioma any time she fights me and I'd end up beating her. The tables turned real quick , not that my mom was training me to be violent, but to learn how to stand up for myself if need be as that's the way to grow.

Don't beat other children just because they beat your children, even if your kids are naturally meek, at least complain to their mothers first. Remember that they are all children and they all have mothers who love them as much as you love your children.

Thanks for reading.

Yours Layly,

❤️❤️❤️

Lead Image: Nairaland.com