If you are reading this and you are well-trained by your parents, you should consider yourself lucky and appreciate your parents more. When you go out, you will see many things happening. Good upbringing is very important. Children are just like white papers. They must reflect whatever you write on them. Training should begin the moment you give birth to a child. Don’t say they are too young. Don’t say they don’t know anything. Don’t conclude they are ignorant.

 

When you are breastfeeding a child and he bites you, no matter how small that child is, please rebuke him by hitting him lightly in the ass. You are indirectly telling that child that it is not good to be wicked. You are correcting him. You are helping his life. If you decide to leave such a child alone by saying he did that because he doesn’t understand anything, you are indirectly telling that child that it is okay to be wicked. Most of the things that people become in their adulthood were learnt in their childhood.

 

Leave no stone unturned when it comes to children upbringing. Do your own part as parents. Train them well. Teach them manners. I understand that you can’t teach children everything but please, teach them those things that are necessary. There are many little things that you should inculcate into your children while they are still young. Teach them hygiene. Let them know how to brush their teeth when they reach that level. Tell them it must be the first thing in the morning after prayers.

 

Teach them that bathing daily is a must. In some homes, it is a rule that children must not eat until they have taken their bath and brushed their teeth. That is another way of engraving personal hygiene in children. Let them know that it is not okay to just scatter things in their rooms. Tell them it is a must to keep their rooms tidy. Sometimes when I visit some people in their houses, I feel like running away. You’ll see clothes scattered everywhere. On chairs. On tables. In corners.

 

Some parents will hurriedly move scattered clothes off the chairs so that you can have a place to sit when you visit them. I’m not trying to appear perfect but the truth is that I’m never comfortable with untidiness. Or dirtiness. I’m meticulous in nature. Maybe I have my mother to thank for that. I’m someone who can sweep his room five times in a day if a grain of sand is discovered. That is why I dread living with people, because they must offend me if they are careless and carefree or untidy.

 

There are some children who can walk from Nigeria to London barefootedly. They don’t care where they step on. This is common with some African children. They will do things anyhow because that is how they were brought up by their parents. African parents should teach their children how to behave in public. I remember when I invited a Nigerian guy to eat with me in a restaurant. I ordered for drinks and four beefs to be served in the same plate. I was still eating my first beef but the guy had already finished the remaining three beefs.

 

I was the one who paid. I took just one beef. He took three. I felt like cursing him because I realized he was greedy. I never invited him again. Maybe he lacked home training or he just chose to ignore it. When someone invites you to a dinner, you don’t eat greedily like a hungry lion. You have to show some courtesy. It is better for them to tell you to eat more than to disappoint them with your greediness. I have learnt my lesson never to have food served in the same plate with such a greedy soul. The greediness and lack of manners probably started from his childhood.

 

When you fail to train your children as parents, they will disappoint you in public. It must be noted that some people don’t know how to eat in a public place. They will be talking loudly with food in their mouths and sometimes they don’t mind spitting the food on you. It makes them look stupid. No respect for the other person at all. Some don’t even know how to argue reasonably. They will be arguing and shouting like hungry hyenas. They will never listen to what the other person has to say. Almost everything begins from childhood.

 

I have seen a lot of African parents who will leave their children to act like wild monkeys in a restaurant. They won’t caution them. There are simple etiquettes we should all know. Chew with your mouth closed. Don’t talk with food in your mouth. Wash your hands after going to the restroom. If you bump into someone, say excuse me. Don’t reach across someone’s face. Don’t carry things over someone’s food. Cover your mouth when you sneeze or cough. Don’t stand on the entrance in a public place. Let others have access. You don’t have to wait until they push you before you know the right thing to do.