Naija Diaries: Getting Your Hair Did. Lesson Well Learnt

The kids begin a new term tomorrow. Its mixed feelings right now, but oh well. To prepare for their big first day back at school after the summer holidays, there were a few things we had to do. Getting their hair done was one of them.

Lo and behold, we found ourselves back at a salon we had used before. My beautiful kids don't like their hair being touched. What child with thick African hair does anyway? As an adult I still squeeze my face when my hair is being pulled so you can imagine me as a child. I was worse than them. When they feel pain on their head, they cry. They don't pretend and they don't care who is watching. They know mummy is always there to comfort them.

Can you imagine one of the hairdressers decided that the only way to stop my child from crying was by pinching her. When my daughter told me, I wanted to kick box somebody, but I had to compose myself, report her to her manager and also the owner of the shop who told her off. They are really lucky my husband was not there at the time. Dear awesome parents, please, please and please again, don't allow any hairdresser, teacher, house-help, aunty or uncle to attack your innocent young child. You are the one with the parental responsibility and you have every right over that child. No one is allowed to bully, pinch, smack with a ruler, hit, push their head, or do anything like that to your child. If that was how you were treated 20 years ago, it was not right then and it is not right now. There are people of authority all over the world and they are in charge of small children. They do not smack a child that is not theirs even if the child asks for it. It is called self-control. They don't go into any job where they have to cater to young children if they do not have the patience and love for children in general. It is absurd that it is still practiced and ignored here. And please, don't come at me with this miopic view of, "its the way of our people, that's how they discipline children here and thats why children raised abroad are wayward". Excuse me please. No they are not. Not all children. A child that will grow up and be bad will be bad irrespective of the country, but it is our job as parents to love and disciple our children in our own way. With fairness and compassion. It is not your job madam hairdresser. My child is innocent. All she did was cry because her hair hurt. There is no justification for her to get pinched. She has never been pinched! How dare a stranger put her fingers together to pinch my child? I've certainly learnt my lesson from that experience. I realised that some people are just deeply wicked and I should NEVER have taken my eyes off my daughter. Not for a minute. Suffice to say they have lost a potential loyal and haggle-free customer.

Still mad.... But may God forgive her.
xoxo