Why you need to teach your children discipline

Last weekend, I attended a birthday party of a close family friend. This is a family that has been friends with my family for long. Their late father introduced my father to my mother.

He came from the same estate of "Okongo" and went to Aquinas High School with my dad and were even housemates when they were starting life.

Their late mother was one of my favourite aunties who spoke her mind and was a strict parent. She was one of the best teachers and most of the students who went through her admit that she was great.

The son of the daughter (who is my God-sister) was turning 18 and the mother was doing for him the last birthday party.

As fate would have it, the husband of my God-sister was with me in college, so the relationship is solid. It reminded me of my earlier years in life and I thought how lucky the Generation Z is to have people, especially adults, at their disposal to offer advice.

Broken record player

In our days, it was rare for advice to come from influential people; it was basically your parents but that seemed to sound like a broken record player. One used to assume most of the advice, but when you are in a room full of adults and most of them are not below 40, one actually will tend to listen to the advice.

What I like about my God-sister is that she is as strict as my auntie. What my siblings and I remember my auntie for is one phrase she liked telling us in case she caught any of us misbehaving.

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She used to say she would "paste us on the wall like pictures". When the son was given a chance to speak, he reminisced the harsh punishments and actually admitted that it made him a gentleman that he is today.

What I want Generation Y parents to know is that instilling discipline in your children does not mean you hate them. As a parent, if you don't do that, then you are failing and it will come to haunt you later.

Let the children know terms like choices, decisions, consequences, and responsibility. As soon as they learn these, they will know that in all the terms, the word discipline is constant.

We all know that technology has turned the world into a global village but even in the first world, caning and discipline still go on.

Discipline, they say, is the practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behaviour, using punishment to correct disobedience. We must start by teaching them the act of discipline from the time they are born to the time they become adults.

Let them have the discipline of following a routine in life and that will help them in many ways. All things, from hygiene to saving money to relationships, one has to have the discipline of sacrifice and self-control. Even when it comes to health, one has to have discipline in terms of what they eat and exercise regimen so as to live a healthy lifestyle.

When it comes to talent, which shapes a career, they say talent is nothing without dedication and discipline, and dedication and discipline is a talent in itself. I would like to congratulate my God-sister for reminding all of us the advantages of discipline.

To Generation Y parents, I will leave you with a quote, hoping it will make you understand the importance of instilling discipline in your children: "Self-discipline means establishing an authority over one's own habits, routines, and priorities and not being under their control."