It is a national day to celebrate children in Nigeria today. Popularly referred to as ‘Children’s day’ and for anyone who grew up in Nigeria, you’d know how big of a deal this was, especially as the majority of Nigerian parents tend to do their best to make it memorable. Whether out in the park or for lunch or indoors having fun!

I went down memory lane today again as I saw some of the pictures of the celebration and my heart was and is still filled with so much joy and gratitude.

It took going through boarding school and subsequently university to realise that most of us were blessed in the homes and parents we grew up in. We pretty much had an amazing childhood that we would not trade for anything and as mundane as it appears, i’d encourage you realise the blessing you received and be very grateful.

I don’t know if it was the atmosphere of the season stirring my conversations but the week leading to today and also over the weekend, I got into a lot of conversations about childhood, parenting and the entire journey through to adulthood from childhood. A particular conversation stands out because it was more on the opposite side of what I had been used to.

My friend felt like parents needed to do more work in preparing to be parents and basically create a safer and more nurturing environment for their kids. His emphasis was on African parents and while I could understand where he was coming from, it hit me how parenting is the only profession without a manual. Even though there are books on parenting, it remains a very subjective matter seeing as parents and children are all different individuals and might be a case of different strokes for different folks.

By the end of the conversation, I found myself asking myself what kind of parent I would want to be and it was quite eye opening to see the way I thought and envisaged things.

While we celebrate children’s day, I thought it’d be nice to get you on same exercise. Evaluate your childhood and your parents style of parenting, what worked? what did not work? what are you definitely taking on board? what are you leaving behind?

This really helps in removing clutter in our mentality on approaching such an office when the time comes. Parenting is that ministry that should never be neglected. Highest calling in my opinion, being able to steward another of God’s creation. Nothing to be taken likely.

Because I am very much aware that we didn’t all have the best childhood or parents. With all due respect, I wanted to apologise to anyone reading this who feels like their parents failed them or who can’t relate to having an amazing childhood. I pray God equips you to be the parent that you wanted while you grew up.