I watched a group of children playing one day. There was a young girl, aged 8 at most, with her 6-month old brother seated on the hips she did not have. She had to push out her left hip so her brother could balance on her body.

At that moment, the figure-8 contour of the body of a developing or developed female made perfect sense to me. The thin waist and the enlarged hip is to hold and balance a child, perfectly. The straight contour of a prepuberty child does not offer all the “allowance”.
I watched the little girl adjust her brother repeatedly on her (straight) body. She watched other children skip rope. When it got to her turn to hop, she put her baby brother down and hopped her hop. Soon her mother returned and she had to hurry back into the house to go and complete a chore she had been assigned to do.
This is a child living under the love and protection of her mother.

We are usually quick to castigate pedophiles for putting children through adult activities. But all around us, we see children been “advanced” in duties and responsibilities that is far beyond their age.

We have almost children everything- child hustlers, child brides, child nannies, child house helps, child soldiers,child farmers, etc. Children who at very early ages are burdened with responsibilities that they are too young to bear.

If we can draw up a Statistics of cash flow that is generated through child labour in our economy, we would all be shocked. i know it is impossible to shield children from the economic realities of the family they are born into,buy apportioning them income to earn or generate at such early ages is almost cruel.

At early ages, children begin to risk their lives, are expected to make (good) decisions, cater for other children, etc. And at any point they fail at any of these, they are reprimanded in any way the adult deems fit. And given our African culture, a child who is been “corrected” is not expected to say “pim”.

No one came into the world fully grown, nature made it so. Growth and maturation allow humans time to gradually learn and adapt to our environment. We hardly allow our children this gradually development anymore. Almost everything is expected of them too soon, now. Their muscles, intelligence, experience needs to develop before they become ripe enough to take up adult responsibilities.

What is most heart wrenching is the emotions these little children are faced with everyday-vented anger and frustration of adults around them, verbal abuse, foul language, and all of its likes. People hardly care about shielding children’s innocence anymore.
One of my most heart felt prayers is that children of tomorrow would not suffer the consequences of all our today’s actions, as they would be smart enough to chart a better course for themselves and find solutions to all the problems we cause today.

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