This one goes out to my father who didn't find it fit to tell me how many women he dated or slept with before he finally met my mother. This goes out to fathers who think we should be better than them but don't think we need to learn from their mistakes. This goes out to fathers who locks us up and whip us when they see us in the company of girls. This goes out to fathers who suddenly became pope when they became parents. This goes out to the father who curses us and doubt our paternity cause we're just a little different from them. This goes out to fathers who sees their children as aliens and not humans. This goes out to fathers who sees us as disappointments cause we failed to replicate their own benchmark of academic excellence. This goes out to fathers who asked us to fetch them water whenever a sex scene came up on the TV screen. This goes out to fathers who never bought us contraceptives or showed us how to use it and then frown at teenage parenting and harbour us under their roofs negligent of how many fetus we've aborted as a result of their hoard information. To every father in the world, your responsibility doesn't end in sending us to school and upon our graduation we get rich, marry and produce children we'd raise violently the same way you raised us. How many parents know about our careers and support us diligently without asking us to be lawyers, doctors, pilots and engineers or just anything that is regularly professional as pioneers? To our mothers who can't speak up or support us for fear of losing their husbands to women outside we blame you not. To our mothers who live like slaves to please our fathers and maintain their recommendations, we understand duly with you. To our mothers who didn't see the need to establish themselves first before going into marriage, we just learnt from your mistakes. Dear African parents, we love you amidst your defects and irrefutable incompatibility with your children but you're exactly who I don't ever wanna grow up to be. We love you but you taught us to grow up and raise children with rods and sticks. Violence only begets violence. Maybe we would have done better if we had a glimpse of your ups and down. Dear parents, you all are not saints. It's high time you see us as friends and not slaves from your bosom. You owe us respect. You owe us the love. You owe us the counsel. You owe us the strength when we can't do it on our own. We're tired of living under your shadows and trying to prove ourselves to you. © David Daniels

To the fathers who don't expect you to make mistakes or get tired!!!!!!!!!

Smh

lalastica