My Never do list of child raising

Children are a wonderful gift to man and are bundles of joy, they are also blessings to us to help carry on the race of mankind. I, personally, think that much care should be put into the upbringing of a child. A great upbringing results in a spectacular, responsible adult with good contribution to the society, while a bad upbringing tends to affect children negatively even after they become adults.

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Although most times, all parents can do is try their best to raise a child well and hope and pray their best is good enough. There have been cases where children with the best upbringing have turned out to be the opposite of what the parents had hoped to achieve.

As a single young lady, I look forward to the idea of having and raising kids to the best of my ability someday. This brings me to the question for the week, “If and when I have children, I'll never…”

Foremost my dream child raising would never include not teaching my children how to be courteous, I would make sure they learn from a young age how to say their please and thank yous and also be polite to elders. I will make sure they learn how to greet and be respectful to everyone around them, and also that respect is reciprocal.

Another thing I will never do is differentiate the house chores between my children. By this, I mean that both my male and female children will be raised in a way that they would know how to cook, clean and take care of their environment and themselves. I know most parents tend to focus more on training their female daughters to excel in these areas, but I would never do that. Everyone would help around the house, both indoors and outdoors.

Thirdly, I would try never to raise my children in a dirty environment. Cleanliness is important to me, and I grew up in an environment that valued cleanliness. I remember when I was about 9 years and a cousin of mine came to visit. This cousin wouldn't help out with the chores or do anything around the house, I found this annoying and reported to my dad. He said to me, “This is your house, your home, don't wait for anyone to tidy it up for you”. Well, my Dad died suddenly a few weeks later, but those words stuck with me until date, and I will pass it on to my children. Cleanliness is Godliness, as the saying goes. I will start with little things like making them pick up their toys after playing, arranging their rooms, cleaning up after eating etc.

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Fourthly, I would never argue with their father or say bad words about him in front of the children. Young children tend to pick up things really fast, even when we think they don't understand what is being said. I would also never use bad words in their presence when they're still little. I say this based on what I've seen in my neighbor's 5-year-old daughter, who tends to use insulting words picked up from her mum towards her brother.

Finally, I will never be too menacing towards my kids. I won't want them to be so scared of me that they wouldn't be able to be honest and truthful with me. I crave a relationship where my children would be able to talk to me freely about anything. This doesn't mean I won't punish them if they do something wrong, I'll be firm but loving and caring towards them.

These are some of the things I know I will never do when raising children, but I hope to learn more things as time goes on.

Thanks for reading!