Saturday, October 11, 2008

Mothering : Is this really the same everywhere ?

Children seem to be and is indeed the joy of every mom in the whole universe, the only thing that may differ is the way children are handled in different parts of the world. In some parts of the world and more so in the developed ones, a lot of care is taken that children are never left alone while in my world, a child as old as 4 years is left with her baby sibling strapped on her back while mom is doing her gardening work sometimes a mile a way from home. The "babysitter" will remain with the baby on her back for as long as she is asleep, then when she wakes up, she has to follow the mom for the baby to get fed. Though a lot do happen during this time of moms absence, not so much attention has been paid to this kind of set up. Sometime the babies fall very badly in the process of unstrapping it from the back cause the baby sitter is tired and wants some relieve , sometimes they get burnt because she is trying to cook something or just playing with fire and there's no one to stop her. Well looking at all these mishaps, I really admire the way the more developed world treat their young ones, a child is a real child until after 18 years , while here we feel that children need to be trained early to fend for themselves in future since sometime at the age of 13 they cease to be children and are already mothers or fathers themselves. This I think is traumatizing and wish there was some kind of force that would change this immediately.

No comments: