At this critical time we are all advocating a total stop of all forms of Police Brutality against fellow human, this is timely! “Children are copy cats!" I made a post sometimes ago titled "violence cannot curb violence". It was the story of a mother who would bite her younger son whenever he bites his elder sister, according to her, she wants the boy to experience the pain too! ............................................................................ Children are copy cats! I mean no offence! Do a thing in the presence of a child, in a short time, he would do same. Over the years, we have created a culture of violence, even the cartoons are not left out! Children are exposed to passive and physical violence as early as when they are babies! You would see a mother backing a baby and he/she is crying, instead of making an effort to know why the baby is crying, the mother would spank the baby and said: "shut up, shut up cry cry baby!" This is not to mention the abusive words that would be hurled at him as he grows! "mùmú" "òdè" "olódo" "dìdìnrìn" "olóòrún", etc. Assorted beating like: "àbàrá" "ìgbátá olóyì" "dirty slap" "ìgbárùn" etc. Whenever you notice any behaviour in your child, communicate with him or her to know where he picked it from and tell him the consequences of such action using everyday happenings, stories... etc. Instead of scolding the child all the time for the mistakes he makes, caregivers should reflect on their parenting skills for proper action towards capacity strengthening. One of the lessons Arun Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi learnt from his father gave me a new insight to parenting and life generally, please read: "When I was sixteen years old, we lived in South Africa about eighteen miles outside the city. One Saturday my father had to go to town to attend a conference and he didn’t feel like driving so he asked me if I would drive him into town and bring him back in the evening. My parents also gave me many small chores to do in the town, like getting the car serviced and the oil changed. When I left my father at the conference venue, he said, ​“At five o’clock in the evening, come here and pick me up, and we’ll go home together.”​ I said, ​“Fine.”​ I rushed off, did all my chores as quickly as possible, left the car in the garage and went straight to the nearest movie theatre. I got so engrossed in a double feature that I didn’t realize the passage of time. The movie ended at 5:30, I came out and ran to the garage and rushed to where my dad was waiting for me. It was almost six o’clock when I reached there and he was wondering what had happened to me. The first question he asked me was, ​“Why are you late?”​ Instead of telling him the truth, I lied to him, and I said, ​“The car wasn’t ready; I had to wait for the car,”​ Not realizing that he had already called the garage. When he caught me in the lie, he said, ​"There’s something wrong in the way I brought you up that didn’t give you the confidence to tell me the truth, that made you feel you had to lie to me. I’ve got to find out where I went wrong with you, and to do that I’m going to walk home.”​ There was absolutely nothing I could do to make him change his mind and I couldn’t leave him and go away. ​For five and a half hours I crawled along in the car behind Father, watching him go through all this pain and agony for a stupid lie.​ ​I decided then and there that I was never going to lie again​. It’s almost fifty years since the event, and every time I think about it I still get goose bumps. ​That is the power of non-violent action​. ​It’s a lasting thing. It’s a change we bring through love, not fear​. ​​Anything that is brought by fear doesn’t last. But anything that is done by love lasts forever.​​ - Arun Gandhi." #lifelessons #parenting #beintentional #bedelibrate