I have not gotten to the point of being a parent to a child I have brought to the world just yet but through the years I have lived I have enjoyed the benefits and the joy of carrying out parental duties to other people's children. some were directly related to me; some were friends but the area that moved me most was when I was a student leader and over one thousand students had their trust in me to defend and protect them. my greatest joy was seeing them happy, seeing them prosper, the fact that they had peace and the society was not busy trying to find reasons to depress them but instead they saw the morals they had. Credit may not entirely be given to me but I played a part in this and there is nothing more satisfying than this.
I believe this is the feeling every parent wants. However, I think that in the process of trying to mold our young ones into whom we want them to be we at times miss the point. this is where we form a loophole for our dependents to be exploited, they lose focus, they get consumed and by the time we realize its often too late to reverse the situation.
I don’t know your opinion about children (3 years to 17 years) getting access to the internet and digital platforms for pleasurable purposes but I think this is where our trauma as parents all began. I understand the notion of millennial and them being digital and independence being the key word and probably a password to most of their phones but in my view, this is the worst discoveries or evolution of the human race that ever took place. I was once left in charge of a ten-year-old girl who had a phone and a ;laptop and the house had internet connection. when her mother requested me to go take care of the girl for a few hours, i literally slide into a toy shop, bought puzzle box, dolls, cards and a skipping rope. to my utter surprise none of my products were even touched, my little girlfriend barely noticed my presence. she was all glowed up on her phone, i even had to remind her that she's hungry and needs to have her lunch.
What shocked me more is when she walked up to me and asked me to turn off my internet connection because she was having difficulties logging into a web page. At first, I thought it was probably a prank but she clarified that the internet was connected only for her and she does not find it kind for someone else to invade and tamper with her operations. WOW! this got me thinking, is this really showing our kids love or are we giving them away to the anonymous world? When I was growing up at the age of ten I had the strongest bond with my mother and everyone else around me not because there was no internet during my time but it’s because my care givers made it clear that it was not yet my time to access the internet. at that point i felt deprived of something but as I grew older I appreciated how they protected me from evil world that hides behind the internet, every day we hear of parents complaining of how their kids have turned out but again they never stop and think where they went a miss. we may not always be around to monitor their every move or activity but sure enough we can give them reasons to keep us happy. making them understand the dangers the outside world poses on their psychological development. let’s take it as a challenge and build the connection we wish our children to have. mold them into people you would be proud of, people the world will not despise, reliable citizens and at the end of the day we will be all proud.
do not let that whom you brought to the world invest into the cruel hands of the internet where peer pressure, drugs, inappropriate videos and even bad company are the major shareholders of the economy. let’s embrace different methods of showing love to our children.
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