In Nigeria, the average child that is asked what he or she wants to become will either want to be a doctor, a lawyer, a pilot or an engineer. It happened in our days, it hasn’t stopped happening now and it won’t even stop in the next God know how many years because as far as Iya Sade or Mama Chika is concerned, the respectable professions in the world are very few.
In the words of Mama Chika, “If Chika come tell me say he go begin dey farm, chei, I go disown am O, I go tell am all the history wey him papa no tell him. See Mama Victor and Mama Chibuzor, see as their children dey do well, dem don build house for this our village and na because Victor na engineer for obodo oyinbo and Chibuzor na big doctor for Lagos”
I’ve had the opportunity to be a kid, live with kids and ultimately teach both kids and in all my years of experience, one thing has never changed- Kids think alike. The fact that you want a child to be a successful person doesn’t necessarily mean he or she has to become a doctor or a lawyer.
Look at it this way; if they all end up with the big professions, who would teach their children (your own grandchildren), who will become the entertainers of tomorrow or who will become the farmer that will grow the foods they will eat or breed the animals they will eat?
Success comes from the backing these children get from their parents. If a child wants to be a teacher, why not let him or her be? If their own teachers had been stopped by their parents from teaching, who would have taught them?
It’s time to embrace these kids and their passion instead of dictating to them what they should or should not do. The rewards are far greater than what you could ever imagine.
Believe it or not, no matter how much you stop a child from doing what he wants to do, he will still find a way to do it and it might end up being a painful way, so wouldn’t it be easier and less tasking to just allow him do what he wants now instead of making him turn against you in the future?
