Parents and guardians alike mete out punishment on children in order to correct them and stop them from further transgression. Offences that make parents angry are telling lies and stealing, they feel that if not taken care of early would make the child to become a criminal or somebody not trustworthy.
Corporal punishment is the norm in our society; in fact some believe that you can’t raise a child with only cajoling and begging him. You have to be firm and strict sometimes to even use the cane if he is very stubborn. Spare the rod and spoil the child, a saying goes.
That is why many cannot understand the Western culture where you don’t beat a child if the need arises. The children usually do as they please and if you insist they may call the police and the child may be taken away from you and placed in a foster home, in a new environment with new ‘parents’ that can take care of him better than you.
Even in schools, for examples in primary schools the pupils would jump on the teacher’s desk and the teacher couldn’t do anything so as not to offend them and be in trouble with the school authorities and their parents.
In addition, films where children are shown to scream and shout at parents are not helping matters. And the parents end up apologising to the children that disrespected them, instead of the other way round, where respecting one’s parents is paramount.
However that does not mean that in punishing children parents should go to the extreme of inflicting injuries on them as they do in some cases.
Therefore the story of a woman who allegedly injured her daughter with razor blades falls into the extreme cases.
The woman who is 35 years old, called Mrs Priye Richman was arrested by the police in Bayelsa State for allegedly inflicting life-threatening injuries with razor blades on her 13-year-old daughter, Tokoye, over alleged theft of N1,500.
The police apprehended her in Okutukutu, Yenagoa Council Area of the state.
“My mother came back around 12.00 p.m. on Sunday after church, and accused me of stealing her N1,500. I told her I didn’t see the money. She did not believe me and started beating me. She tied me with ropes and slashed all parts of my body with razor blades. She later rubbed pepper and kerosene on the injuries.”
She said it was a neighbour who pushed down the door, rescued her and called the girl-child advocacy groups who helped detain her mother and handed her to the police.
Tokoye was even lucky to have a neighbour that can rescue her and call for help. Some people would look the other way and say , “It is not my business,” and let the maltreatment continues that may even lead to death.
So perhaps it is high time we strengthen our social welfare departments to look more into these cases of abuse as well as the cases of delinquent children.
Though there are Remand Homes where such children are taken, more needed to be done in terms of awareness. Because some people don’t know who to approach and where to go to seek help, so they end up with the ugly scenario of using sharp objects on their children and even fire . Some burn the hands of their children if they steal.
Bringing up a child is not easy, not as easy as it seems by reading some ‘experts’ advice. Some would tell you to be very lenient and allow your child to grow and find his way, in other words to allow him do as he likes and however he turns out to be you have to live with the consequences.
Besides, you see some parents that have tried their best but the child turns out differently.
Though I don’t claim to be an expert, but you have to balance between strictness and leniency where they call for.
Some parents especially mothers are fond of cursing their children, inviting God’s wrath on them. They abuse them with hurtful words, aggravating the situation to the extent that some children leave home.
Therefore it is a sad commentary that these kinds of punishments that border on abuse and threat to life happen to be visited on children by their parents.
