Morals From My Parents Desk 👨‍👩‍👦🛎️

Most of the things I learned while growing up still stay with me as an adult. I learned how to respect elders, how to respond to people, how to treat people, and a host of other behaviors from my parents. Out of the various lessons passed down my lineage, the most emphasized and the one my parents always hammer is honesty.

Pexels

I remember days I spent money I shouldn’t have, and I was disciplined for that. My mom would always say, “There is no difference between small lies and big lies.” In line with this statement, all punishments are the same.

Whether you ate extra meat or spent a change you were supposed to be accountable for, the same punishment would always be given by my mom. It’s only on rare occasions that I got specially dealt with as a child.

Growing up, even my friends do wonder at how truthfully funny I can be. Indeed, it’s hard for a child to depart from the way he’s been brought up. However, I learned as an adult that being brutally honest can be detrimental not just to people around me but also to me.

When I was in my first year at the university, I remember one of our lecturers asking if anyone was not in a relationship. An honest and innocent me just raised my hands, and that was how I became the butt for that day. I remember later finding out that I wasn’t the only one with that status in the same class.

I felt really embarrassed that day. Of course, honesty is still a very vital attribute I have, and I am definitely passing it down my lineage. However, just as the popular saying about too much of everything not being the best, so is honesty to a fault, an attribute to be managed.

I remember also writing an essay at the same 100 level. A lecturer said we should write about our hometown and our family. I went on to ‘honestly’ feed him information that was none of his business; he was kind enough to point out my excessiveness, and I adjusted gradually.

Growth is a gradual process, and I am glad I have learned that honesty is a good attribute but shouldn’t be excessive.

Another thing I learned, particularly from my father and which I still apply as an adult, is how to enjoy life even in the midst of busy schedules. That is why I can easily joke with my colleagues, and the next moment you see me doing something pretty serious.

May be this icing on the cake is not totally a moral characteristic I emulated from my dad, but I am confident that this attribute is very key to emotional intelligence and management.

My dad can come from work very late at night and still play with us, and we enjoy that fun father-children moment after a hectic day at work. This wasn’t really something I adored until I gradually stepped into adulthood.

It’s not easy to have several tasks ahead of you or even behind you and still create time to play with people around you without passing any aggression, but that is one of my privileged characters. I am definitely passing my good characteristics down to my lineage.