Heal the injury on your body first...
Yesterday's afternoon, I wanted to see a friend that lives in the next street. That noon, a fierce whirlwind had earlier swept the roads making it seem like our community was expecting the president to visit any moment. I walked majestically out of my gate and observed the street for some seconds before I hit the road walking with charisma like the president they were expecting.
I had barely walked two houses away from my house when I saw an aged woman in her late fifties beating a little child with a stick. The mother of the child urged her to beat the child very well and she obliged. The young boy tried to run to his mother maybe she could do something about his condition but she pushed him to meet the old woman so she could beat him very well. I wasn't surprised. Disciplining a child didn't decline the offer for an outsider to help train a child.
However, the old woman that was beating this young child has a grown up son who is now an Area boy. He smokes a lot to an extent that the color red becomes a counterfeit upon seeing his eyeballs, he keeps a dreadlock that mad people don't wear on their heads, his lips are very dark and he looks quite unkempt. He doesn't have a job or anything reasonable to do. Everyday, he stands by the roadside hailing every vehicle he sees, shouting at the top of his voice while requesting some spare cash to buy "Smoke". He steals phones from people to sell and he once told me that he hacked his sister's Facebook account and sold it off to one yahoo guy like that.
Something is wrong somewhere I said, as I continued walking to my friend's house. Here's a an old woman whose son isn't well groomed yet she's helping another parent to discipline her child. This doesn't sound right, right?
Here's the main the problem I want to talk about. I have seen so many parents that their children rot under their roof yet they go about trying to teach other people's children. They are too blind or rather ignorant to see the bad behaviors in the lives of their children. They neglect their primary duty and employ themselves with the responsibility of criticizing the way other children live. To these parents, their children are very trained so they try to help train other people's children. It's this type of parents that will stop you on the road and start insulting you just because of your mini skirt or sagged trousers. They can even pay your parents a visit just to report that you didn't greet them that evening when you passed before them. They completely put their focus on other people's children believing that their own children cannot misbehave.
Should I tell you how funny life is? You see those kids you wasted your time trying to train, they might not remember you when they finally succeed. Even if they will, it will take a long time before they remember that you exist. Do you care to know how ironical life could be? You see the parents of those kids you trained will laugh at you when your own kids eventually begin to misbehave around. If you could train other people's children so well, what happened to your own kids? They will make jest of your inability to train your children and you'll regret your stupidity eventually.
Just imagine, if that old woman had mistakenly hit the stick on the little boy's nose while he was struggling to dodge her cane strikes and his nose starts bleeding seriously. What will people say?. Let me answer that question.
"look at her, she can beat other people's children but her own child lacks home training".
"if she can beat so well, she should have done it on her child, probably his life won't be that worse"
People would say worse than what I've written. Nobody will care to even listen that the child's mother had urged her to beat the child more. The whole blame will transferred to her. She won't be happy with herself.
I cannot say it is wrong to help train or discipline another person's child but before you throw a stone, make sure you do not live in a glass house. Make sure that you have trained your children well enough before you start training other people's children. Let the home training in your child train other children. Instead of wasting your time on other people's children, train your children so that their lifestyle can train other people's children.