If you ain’t a parent, you have no moral authority to advise anyone on parenting. Kwa ground vitu ni different…
I’m sitting at a wide, polished table looking at a colorful hotel menu. It’s a garden café, with 9 tables spaced out in three’s. There’s some hidden speakers playing country rock.
On the table directly behind, there’s a family of 4 – a relatively young couple with two boys, perhaps four and six, or seven.
The kids are noisy. They hardly keep at their seats. The first born leads the younger one all over the lawn, raising a circus.
I can hardly concentrate on amazing photos of pudding on my menu.
The younger one grabs a passing waitress by her apron, and demands some kind of strawberry ice cream. There’s an altercation, as she asks for the nod from their dad. He’s on his phone.
The mum shakes her head.
“I said no ice cream today”, she says.
In real time, an almost similar couple arrives. Two girls, roughly the same age as the loud ones behind me.
None of the parents whip out their phones immediately they take their seats. The kids keep still on their seats. They order a fruit pudding.
That pudding is a standard pudding. None of that celebrity magnificence on the colorful menu.
I order fried corn with French white beans garnished with organic Guacamole.
Anyways, the family silently dig into their bowls, with tooth picks.
Meanwhile, behind me, I catch lines like:
“Why can’t you be like those kids kwa ile meza? Wanakula bila kelele ama kuranda randa?”
Immediately they finish their pudding, the elder one picks up two bowls, the sibling picks the others. They leave the table and head towards the kitchen. It’s a bit to the left, but, their waitress appears. They hand over the bowls.
She thanks them.
The younger one quips: Welcome, anytime.
Am tongue-tied. I glance back at their parents to catch them fist-bumping. That’s when it hits me.
This, right in this café with me, is what’s up with modern parenting.
There’s no sure way. Most people are just swinging it.
You are either doing it right – or stumbling through the maze.
By varying parenting degrees, you are either awesome, or doing miserably.
Well, being a parent and talking of being a parent – are two worlds apart. If you ain’t a parent, get a kid first – and see how different things are – on the ground.
Don’t be mistaken. Kids are the best thing, but with a disclaimer: Kama Wako Na Tabia.
If not, your spouse will always be stressed, tired and irritable.
Modern generation parents have a crisis. The mother is the official disciplinarian, the dad falls back as the ‘cool parent’. Or, vice versa.
Talking of kids, at least mentor them on money management, and good financial discipline. Because that’s one aspect of their future that’s definite.
If in future they suffer poor people or social skills, it pays if they are financially smart.
Luckily, there’s a financial partner coming through.
Co-op Bank, with the iconic Jumbo Junior Bank Account.
Co-op Bank has a transitional account for children below 18 years.
First off, the account offers automatic membership to the Jumbo Junior Membership Club, which is packed with lots of benefits.
The Jumbo Junior Account allows discounted bank cheque’s for fee payments to the child’s school.
This account also attracts interest payable at 3%, annually.
To sign up, or learn more about Jumbo Junior, visit the nearest Co-op Bank branch, or click here.
The Big Bank Account….For Little People!
P.S. – It turns out that “Fried corn with French white beans garnished with organic Guacamole” is just fried Githeri with avocado.
