You too were entitled and blinded by age

By 6.45am, I was in the client’s parking lot. I pulled out my pillow and lay back in the car. I had gone to bed late and had to be up early. To beat the morning traffic, I left the house very early and since my assignment was supposed to start at 8am, I put my head down and waited the time out.

Oftentimes, you will see many grown men and women walking in town to work. Some literally hassle their way throughout the day. Many parents will usually forego the comforts of life so that they can provide not only a decent life for their children, but also meaning and purpose.

The challenge with the human mind is that when a child is a certain age, they are normally full of ignorance coupled with a mighty sense of entitlement.Back in high school, we often felt like our parents were not giving us all everything we needed. In fact, I remember one particular incident when on my school shopping list, I asked for a tin of powdered milk. Those days and even today, powdered milk was not just expensive, but it is a luxury item. In our time, our mother could barely afford all the necessities before we would even make mention of the non- essentials.

She was working two or three jobs to afford what we had. Yet by the folly of the ignorance of a teenage mind, we desired more and were actually ungrateful for what she painfully put for us. These things only make sense in hindsight, when you have grown somewhat and seen that life is an interesting trajectory, with sunny and rainy days. That the rainy days come with mud and that when it is shining so brightly, the sun can burn.

Raising teenagers is quite an experience because there are many things that as a parent you may not be able to explain to the child to understand. Because the child might see you with a seemingly large sum of money and complain that you are not giving it to them, yet that same money is the business capital you require to multiply so that out of its profit, you can pay their next school fees.

And that out of that same capital is where you are projecting to make a profit, so that you can pay rent and prepare for their university dues, in the not so distant future. In their blissful ignorance, they are completely unable to see things from the different dimensions; they complain and become a nuisance in their lack of understanding. What a paradox!

Someone said that raising your own children is the world’s way of making you pay up for what you put your parents through when you were young, ignorant and arrogant. Your children remind you that you too were once entitled and blinded by age, believing that the world revolved around you. The world is fair after all!