I I woke up this morning to the sound of a crying child. He is four years old. It was 6:40 am for the love of God, and it hurt my feelings. I am imagining how his day will be and how he will feel sitting in that classroom in pain. He kept saying, “Ni yeye amenikanyaga, assuming a sibling stepped on him and he got punished. He couldn’t stop saying it and kept crying loudly alone outside. So I called out his name, and as soon as I did, he kept quiet. Sometimes all a kid needs is a little attention, just a bit. Someone should assure them that they are seen and heard and that they aren’t alone. The number one cause of trauma for children is neglect—any form of neglect. House girls will be the agents of pain for this generation. Nobody is great at this parenting thing, you know. Most days, we are just winging it and hoping it’s the best for us. Most days as parents, we mess up big time,but the next day we show up and try again because parenting is a full-time job. What happens then when we have to leave them with caregivers because chasing the bag is part of parenting? Do we ask what happened during the day? Do we listen when our kids tell us that they went through something? Do we take a minute to understand what happens in their daily lives? Because if we don’t, one day we are going to wake up to a traumatized generation. Then we will blame them for the way they turned out.
#Children
#housegirls
