The Life Plan

The typical African Setting.

Father; We will name her Chioma

Mother; (calmly) why chioma,what of uju?

Father; (ponders). Mba! Chioma is ok.

Mother; Ngwa nu.

Reading this conversation,you would think the child is 4days old and in the cradle..No! That child is still in the liquid form and has 8months to become a normal human. Parents call it "Early planning" , I call it "Early Worrying".

Let me fast forward to when the child is two years old. They will hold another meeting.

Father; You will go and check if Our lady private school has creche so that chioma will attend there.

Mother; if they don't have?

Father; you check other places.

*the mother always has to do the checking.its only in rare cases that fathers show concern towards the child's school and of course,he has his own plan.

That child's journey begins there :
She attends our lady of apostles primary school,Mater Christi Girls' High school. She has talked to only the friends her parents have choosen for her, worn the cloths they like,eaten what they like,gone where they like and somehow its not enough. Now its the tetiary part of her life and her father says

"I want you to study medicine"

And chioma says ;

"Medicine? I can't study medicine,its for science students. I studied arts in school."

***This her 'father' has sent her to school but he doesn't know what she majored in.

That moment when the girl decides to do something she likes for once is when she's called "confused" "stubborn" "rebellious" "young and wild" and the list goes on.

In the plan layed out by her parents,no place says "discover her talent and harness it and make her happy forever"
Only 3% of parents think of this and that 3% include the likes of will smith & wife, pattie mallete(justin bieber mother)

A friend was discussing this with me and she said something that 90% of parents do.
"My mother does everything, she comes to visit me in school,she discusses things with me,she even carries the extended family burden on her shoulder. My dad doesn't have a clue as to what my best colour or best food is. All he does is compare me with other kids who have totally different lives and values. The only thing my parents have done together as parents is form me"

I found that so sad.And somewhere in my medium sized head, I think that "life" our parents seem to have planned well is one of the reasons most youths are clueless as to what to do in life.