Last Saturday just before midnight, I was struggling to catch some sleep when I heard people singing and clapping in my hood. The nosy spirit in me could not ignore the noise and chose to rise and go check out what the celebration was all about. I had seen a gathering earlier in the day near my neighbour’s house and huge sufurias blocking the path to my house. I actually had to hop, step and jump as I tried finding my way to my house. I figured out this was going to be a huge celebration going by the size of the sufurias.
As the nosy me struggled to peep through my bedroom window to at least catch a glimpse, the singing grew louder and laughter filled the air. People were dancing in a circle and right inside the circle was a sweet little girl in full graduation gear clapping.
It then hit me, boom! This is that time of the year when kindergarten children graduate. From the way the girl was clapping, she looked like she had been awake from the day Noah built the ark!
She was extremely tired but at the same time excited about all the attention she was getting. The adults around her looked energised and ready to shake a leg till dawn! No other child was anywhere near the vicinity, all children were already asleep. I pitied the sweet girl but then again, in this part of the continent, with the current generation of parents, if I tried poking my nose, I would have received a ‘It’s none of your business’ side eye. So I pulled my sleepy head from in between the window grills and joined my imaginary husband in bed promising him I was not going to disrupt our sleep again.
Three hours later, I was woken up by the same noises, only this time the girl was nowhere to be seen and the adults were drunk and busy singing the national anthem! So now this little girl’s graduation ceremony had turned out to be a drinking spree for the adults who had gathered to ‘congratulate’ her. This got me thinking, we parents of this generation have become really unfair with some of these parties we throw for our young ones.
In fact, I have realised that we put our interests ahead of those of our young ones. I have attended many ‘birthday’ parties of young ones that have turned out to be drinking sprees for adults. If anything, the children barely enjoy their time. They are given attention for at most two hours after which the cake is cut and they are sent out to go and play.
In fact, only a hand full of adults pay attention to the children (If not their parents) as the rest of the adults sit in a corner sampling drinks occasionally hoping past the children as they rush to the bathroom. The real meal is served to the adults while children are served snacks in plenty. We have totally lost the meaning of celebrating our young ones!
For instance, why would these people in my neighbourhood be subjecting the young graduand to that torture that late and in the absence of fellow children? What was so hard in singing her all those praises during the day in the presence of her fellows?
When you decide to celebrate your young one, mind the audience and the time. Do not call for a drinking party in your house or wherever in the name of celebrating your young one. No one is going to crucify you for organising a drinking party wherever, just don’t tie it to a young one’s day of celebration. Children have very good memory and from the way we have turned their celebrations, what they might end up remembering out the days will be the opposite of what we expect them to remember.
If anything, children no longer look forward to the cutting of the cake during birthdays, instead, they concentrate on dancing to the beats of adult music we play them. Unlike in our days, children in the hood are no longer invited to a birthday party by the ‘Happy Birthday’ songs filling the air. Instead, loud secular music is enough to make your child ask you, “huko ni wapi kuna Birthday?”