I watched my little girl kill a cockroach the other day. Not once or twice but multiple times until it was very dead. And I remembered how as a young girl, I was told not to harm these insects because they are God’s creatures.
One of my brothers used to do the same as my daughter is doing to all sorts of insects until one day when my mum told him that we would all die the same way as the insects we killed. He cried so much because he was reminded of the torture he had put the insects through. He would burn some, beat others to death and such kind of torture.
Somehow I think, if we lived abroad (in the West) they would suggest that such people have a certain disorder. Hence they would get them help if not check them into a mental hospital. Anyway back to my daughter, I watched her action and as a parent who is very cautious on how I raise the next generation, I figured this was a behaviour I have to deal with right now.
If I let her torture an insect for no reason not even out of self defence, am I not raising a bully? Who says someone who has started with insects won’t upgrade to bullying fellow kids, get popular for such acts (wonder why bullies are always popular?) and form cliques that will come along with peer pressure? From that she could feel it’s normal to do drugs and there will be no turning back.
What I am saying here is not that a two-year-old who can harm a cockroach will end up in the above cycle. Not at all. I am just saying that as responsible parents, we should tame bad behaviour from day one. Quit that talk of “She is still young, she does not know what she is doing”.
That worked for us because 1 – we were so naive and 2 – adults were always right, no question about that. Not this generation that advices me to ask Google when I ask them for a minute to think about the homework questions. They are too lazy to think I imagine. I have met parents with that “she is still young attitude”, only to discover that the young girl has body art (tattoos), nudes in her phone and some have carried out multiple abortions.
How I wish I was exaggerating all this. We could all laugh about it and even laugh harder at the insect that has been left lifeless. But it’s sad to note that so many youth that are going astray and some even committing suicide, did not wake up one morning and plan so. If you carefully study these cases you will find out that they have been struggling with lots of emotional stuff from childhood.
And you know what, it’s going to get worse if we keep letting our children get away with acts that are harmful all in the name of being young. So come on parents, discipline that child and teach them to be kind, honest, patient and all the other values that will surely make them better people in future.