NEVER TOUCH A NEIGHBOUR’S CHILD

Parentinggist

I am a happy mother of four children.

There are happy moments and there are moments of decision too.

Of course if you have more than a child, then you are in for  “nasty” moments some of  the time.

This is not to discourage you after all as it will leave you with awesome memories and no regrets.

With my four children it’s hard to have a quiet house. If you have at least two kids I’m sure you can feel my vibe of “no dull moment” at home.

On this faithful day, I was home with my last  baby, who was barely two months old at the time.

With the stress of waking almost all night, trying to breastfeed the baby, I decided to take a nap.

My nap was short. A car was parked right beside my window, noticing the lights of the car on made me jump up from my bed.

I looked through the windows but I couldn’t see clearly.

I raced for my clothes, had them on immediately and ran to the door.

Unbelievable, I saw my neighbour’s 6-year-old son trying to move one of the father’s cars.

There were other children playing around and praising him for being brave and courageous. Among them was his 10-year-old brother.

I hurriedly rushed to the door and put off the ignition.

I was furious, with different thoughts running through my head.

What if he hit the other children? What if he hit the other cars parked in the compound? What if he turned towards the building and hit my room directly?

With all these “what if” questions, I found a cane and made sure I gave him five strokes of the cane.

I felt I had done something worthy of praise but I was surprised when my neighbour (the boy’s mother) knocked at my door about  6:00 pm.

I rushed to narrate the whole episode to her and she said, “I am not interested in your story, keep it to yourself. I have come to warn you , don’t ever touch my children again, never again in your life.”

I was in shock.

If you were faced with such a scenario, how would you handle it?

From my own perspective I felt I did something right but she caused a lot of uproar that even my husband told me never to go near her kids again, to save everyone some stress.

Do you think I did something wrong? If you were faced with such challenge, how would you face it? Do you feel my neighbour was right and that hers was the best way to raise kids?

I am still dumbfounded as I cannot place how else I should have reacted to such an incident.

What if the story was the other way round? If you were the neighbour whose son was reprimanded for doing something wrong, how would you react?

Never touch a neighbour’s child. No matter the situation, don’t ever raise a finger.

I’m waiting to hear how you would handle it.