My parents never failed to use the normal African parenting methods when disciplining us, from flogging us or sometimes denying me something I desired at that moment, but making it available for my sibling or vice versa, which often made us feel remorseful, therefore not wanting to repeat same mischievous action again.

I also noticed that they usually used more of a particular method to a child they deemed fit like I was not the type they would beat often because at some point they realized that the beating was not as painful as it was when they talked and advised me. If you know African mothers very well, you know for them to have your time of advice it means you are about to be roasted which will make you reason about your current life and future, my mum's words were usually more painful to me, because I had a soft heart and wouldn't have peace thinking about how I have made my mum sad. She can be dramatic to the extent of crying sometimes, as weird as it sounded, she realized that was the easiest wayy to get me to listen, her easiest way of disciplining me.

So every parent or guardian needs to understand what method works best for their child or children as every child is unique. I remember always imagining how having children and training them would be so easy, but mehn, it isn't as I had it in mind, as a mum of two adorable little girls, sometimes they get on my nerves, especially after several subtle warning, I realized that the children of nowadays aren't like we were then, disciplining them can be challenging, as children are exposed to various influences, unlike those days where it takes a whole village to train a child, the world is now eviler and everyone wants their privacy and wouldn't want anyone meddling in their affairs, talk more train their child, even schools don't beat children anymore in this current time, but I make sure to have a small cane, which I mostly use to scare them rather than whip, I've also learned that discipline requires patience, consistency, and creativity. for example. I seize their Ipad when their concentration has been affected, I also tell my 3 years old to face the well and think about what she did, and then we have that mother-to-daughter talk, where she explains herself to me and I also tell her why what she did was bad and shouldn't be repeated, so she knows she was punished for a good reason and not because I hate her. It's not always easy, but the main focus is that we are to raise responsible, confident, and well-behaved children.

All images used in this post are mine.

Thank you for reading