I couldn’t help but listen to the conversation of two children about ten years in age at an event I attended recently. Parents came along with their kids to this birthdaycelebration after church service that Sunday afternoon and I sat in acorner, quiet as I was exhausted and just wanted to rest – be by myself.These two boys were having this interesting conversation. They werefriends and were both in JSS1. One of the boys was complaining and lamenting to the other one about how he felt denied by his parents; things other kids appear to enjoy with ease.He was complaining to his friend with a tone of envy, how they no longer subscribe to satellite television and can’t watch their interesting TV programs any more. He also complained about putting on the generator for only two hours every day compared to several hours in time past. He also complained about delay in the payment of school fees and how they’ve had to withdraw from their beloved school clubs because his parents wouldn’t pay the club dues anymore. He also talked about all the nice sneakers and nice clothes he would want to have like his friend, but he couldn’t have them. His friend asked him why and he said, the father told them he was building a house and on that account the whole family needed tomake the necessary sacrifice so that the housing project can be completed on time. This boy went on to say something really touching, he said, “why must we suffer because daddy is building a house, if he doesn’t have enough money, can’t he wait till he has enough? In fact I hate the house already and I won’t move there with them when it’s completed”.I was touched by this conversation. I looked at this boy’s face and he was visibly upset. He was angry at his parents but of course wouldn’t say anything to them. As a 10 year old, he was daily exposed to the benefits and provisions other parents made available for their own children and he wouldn’t understand why his own case was different. At ten, he had become an angry child and be sure from then on, his allegiance would likely be to friends and maybe other parents headmires but not his parents. As he becomes a teenager he would rather be close, be intimate and take advice from friends and peoplehe admires than his parents – the parents were losing him on the account of a housing project.Ladies and gentlemen, we may judge this boy as young and ignorant but the implication......
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