When it comes to the subject of parenting, a lot of concepts and approaches have been proposed by different schools of thought.
Parenting is like a career part of its own for me because we have seen people over time that are successful in their choice of career and other things, but their children are not examples of what they stand for.
The holy book of the bible is in the book of proverbs 22:6 "Training up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it."
Parenting requires a lot of sacrifices and commitment from both the father and mother of a child.
Back in the 80's and 90's, men took many wives in order to give birth to many children, which were used for farming activities. This made a lot of children not have an education as they mostly did farm work.
For me, parenting has three stages, the first being the stage of teaching, which is between the ages of 0 and 12. This is a stage where parents put in the most work, as whatever is not thought to the child within this stage will or might be difficult to learn. This is the stage where a parent actively teaches a child the core values of life. This is also the stage to correct any bad behavior noticed in a child in order for it not to become a character.
The next stage is the stage of instruction. This stage is between the ages of 13 and 19, which is the teenage stage of life, as the case may be, where you instruct them. This is basically telling a teenager what to do and giving reasons why an instruction should be carried out. This stage is one of the most sensitive stages where a child is exposed to other children from different backgrounds and social economic status based on school.
During this stage, active care and counseling are needed in order to keep a child in focus.
The third stage is the stage of friendship, where you become friends with your child because they have gone through stages and can now relate with a mature mind, which brings me to the subject of discussion.
And in my opinion, children are not to be brought into the affairs of family at an early stage. This is not trying to discard the fact that children shouldn't be involved in family affairs.
But should be first thought before responsibility because any responsibility that is not thought and hasn't been learned cannot be effectively carried out.
Also, children will be children venerable, and by the time you start involving children in adult matters, you might just go out to hear people discussing an issue that is supposed to be private because the mind of that child is not mature enough to carry the discussion, or whatever matters, you involve them.
Childhood is an ultimate stage of dependency, which allows a parent to be the source of whatever a child gets better—information, finance, emotional care, and so on.
Please let me know what you think in the comments. This is my entry for the Hive Naija weekly prompt.
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