What Do We Say To This?

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There are some stories you would hear and you just don't know how to react. There are some you would hear and you would wish you can slap senses into some heads. There are some you would hear and you can't help but wonder where it all went wrong for us as humans because there shouldn't be any rationale behind such action.

We handle stress or pressure differently but that doesn't mean we have to act in a way that defies common sense or put another person in trouble. There is no one in the world that is not battling with one stress or the other, starting from pressure with deadlines, financial obligations and so much pressure that I might not put into words but that is not an excuse for us to act in some ways that the society would still frown at later on.

I visited Twitter and I just knew I would have a story to read and write on as I followed my heart and it wasn't even up to a minute when I came across this story from a young lady that wants people to help raise funds for a young girl whose mother dipped her hands into hot water because she stole fish from the pot.

Here is the background story. The mother stays alone with her two children. One is 8, so I want to believe based on the picture of the girl at the hospital that she is around 4 years old or maybe 6. She has been struggling to make ends meet and just last week, she said she borrowed 10,000 Naira ($18-$20) to start up a food business to at least put food on the table. She is expected to pay an interest of 5,000 Naira (that's half of what she borrowed) on the loan.

She took the money and bought fish. She said she had 19 pieces of those fishes in the pot and she went to the market to get other things to be used. She got back from the market only to meet just 1 fish left. Her daughter ate the rest and she got angry. She got angry to the point of boiling water and she dipped the hands of her daughter in it, causing that baby so much discomfort and injuries.

As much as I want to sympathize with her but I am sorry, what the mother did doesn't make sense. I might not be able to relate to the pressure and pain she was going through to do what she did, I still want to believe that there is no justification for what she did. She is just a child and she later admitted that she knew her child was hungry.

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This is why we must always try and do things with a calm mind. She thought she was under pressure, right? Now, her pressure has increased because the police have gotten involved and she might lose custody of those children as they are trying to raise funds for that child to get better and gain control of her hands again.

There are some things we have no control over and it's about managing the situation well so as not to make a mess of an already terrible situation. The father walked out on her - that's out of her control. She had to fend for herself - that's still within her control to some extent. The girl ate all the fish while she was away - that's not in her control but it could have been avoided if she had satisfied the hunger of that child first before trying to sort out other things. I understand that she wants to make sales first so she can feed them with the profit but that child had no control over the hunger that gripped her also. She is a child and all they do at that age is play, eat and sleep which every parent must understand.

The mother found herself in a dire situation but she made it worse which could have been avoided. What she did to that young girl is inhumane and wicked. No one can understand the pain that girl must be going through and if she is indeed a good mother, she would know that she would also feel that same pain regardless - while watching her writ in pains.

Parenting isn't just about bringing a child to the world but you have to model the life you want them to live going forward. Would she be happy if she got a report that her child did that to her grandchild? It's not surprising when they told us to count 1-10 when we are angry and then 1-100 when we are very angry. Anger is just one letter short of danger and when we don't tame it, we ruin a lot of things that would make others see us differently and it's hard for sympathy to come our way that time.

Parents need to understand the place of priority and all could have been avoided if the child's hunger has been satisfied first. Children don't need to eat too much and giving preference to her would have saved her a lot of trouble. You can't help but feel sympathy for the mother in a way but she had a choice to act better and she didn't. Parenting involves a lot of emotions which is why anyone can be a father or a mother but it takes someone special to be called daddy or mummy. When your child refers to you as father or mother, there is trouble 🤣🤣😂🤣... kidding.

Children would stress you, frustrate you and stretch you but still, there is no justification to inflict injuries on them all because they have done wrong. Being a parent isn't for children and if you can't manage your emotions you would surely fail where parenting is concerned.

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This post also appeared here and it's my original work on my blog on Read.Cash.

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Thank you for your time.

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My pen doesn't bleed, it speaks, with speed and ease.

Still me,

My tongue is like the pen of a ready writer.

Olawalium; (Love's chemical content, in human form). Take a dose today: doctor's order.