Ikenna Nwachi
@ikennanwachi
1 year ago

IT'S NEVER TOO EARLY
Today I decided to take a walk since I sat down for hours in the office. As I was walking down the Street along Evuma Junction which was about 20 meters away from my office, I noticed a group of persons gathered at Emeleq medicals Pharmacy shop .When I got closer, I noticed it was my neighbor's son ; Eric in the midst of some persons. I rushed to the scene immediately. "Eric ,what happened?",I inquired. At that moment I now saw his principal who explained how Eric broke James head.

I went to James who is been treated by a pharmacist in his medical shop.Indeed James had lost so much blood because his white shirt was stained with blood.

I brought out my phone to call Eric's mother ; Pamela. She picked and spoke in dismay that she is on her way to the place. Eric's principal has already called her earlier to inform her of the incident.
When she arrived the pharmacy shop , Eric's principal was very direct"with all due respect Mr and Mrs Sawyer,I don't think you're doing enough in terms of Eric's upbringing.Its either you don't give him the attention,love and care he deserves,or you indulge him". pointing to the boy with a bandaged head and a bloodstained uniform sitting beside the parents who had also arrived,he continued,"James here has a broken head. Eric your son hit his head on a wall and fled the scene.His classmates who witnessed the incident said he did that because earlier in class ,James and some other students had mocked him when he couldn't answer the teacher's question.These are James' parents sitting beside you.They are very upset about the situation.I Invited you here because of this unfortunate incident, and to tell you that this is becoming one too many and it's unacceptable to the school authority."
Pamela spontaneously apologized to James'parents,drew the boy closer to her and patted his head,her eyes brimming with tears. Sawyer whispered to her for a second,and in unison,the couple told the principal and James' parents that they would take care of his medical bills.They both apologized profusely for their son's action,and the two couples had a warm handshake.

After offering his own apology ,the principal released James and his parents and told Sawyer ,Pamela and i to wait behind.when they left ,he said " Aside from your son's misbehavior and truancy,this is his second year in grade three. His academic performance getting worse by the day.If he continues this way and he fails his exams at the end of the term, I'm afraid I will have to ask you to withdraw him from the school,"he told the couple.
"We are really very sorry for our son's behavior",they apologized to the principal."We will definitely do something about the situation,we promise".They exchanged a good-natured banter with the principal and left to pay the medical bills before I joined them in their car and we drove to the our house.

As we were driving home,Pamela said" I Woke up several times in the middle of the night because somehow I knew my day was going to be a bittersweet one" ,in amazement I asked why and she continued" Doctor Albert was to confirm that I a,m pregnant with my second child. This pregnancy is the only one I'd had in nine years after my first child; Eric.I and my husband were very happy when we started noticing some symptoms of pregnancy in me."I said to myself"as you look forward to having the baby,and hope you will do a better job in raising this one than you did with Eric."

Actually Eric was born with a silver spoon in his mouth,and being an only child ,they made sure that Eric lacks nothing and they made available everything needed for his comfort. They Pampered and indulged him .Pamela, especially, always excused whatever he did. Her response to any report of his son's misdeed was always," Let him be; he's only a child. Besides, he's too young to be chided or corrected for such things." She never saw the need to correct his misdeeds.When Eric turned six ,he became very naughty ,but she attributed his misbehavior to his hormonal changes.

As Eric grew older, his demeanor became disconcerting.His parents started getting unpleasant reports from we neighbors and teachers about him.Eric wouldn't end a fight until he put a scar on his opponent.He always had one excuse or the other for disturbing the neighborhood.

He struggled to do his homework and never showed his parents his test scores because he failed them. In fact he never brought his scripts home most times.To make matters worse,his mother does everything including his homework for him.He couldn't lace his shoes or wear his clothes by himself. Whenever he couldn't have his way ,he threw a temper tantrum.
By the time he became nine years old, they were at loss on what to do to him, because he was already a headstrong child.

There is no hard or fast rule as to the specific age or time the training of a child should begin.But understand that the training of your child can never be too early.