Thread by @nwaoma007

1./I was teasing a friend about empty nest syndrome. Her son’s in senior secondary. He’ll be off to university soon. She laughed &said she could hardly wait for her nest to be empty.

“My eldest is 21 in university. Do you know for how many years I’ve been doing the school run?”

2./“At a point, I had to be in school from 1:30 pm until 4:30 because I had a child in infant, junior & secondary school. Each had different closing times.

My friend never had the chance to practice her profession. This was the choice she & her husband made.

3./ This is the sacrifice it required.
She does various businesses, but she’s never held a 9-5 since the children began school. Any business she’s done has also had to revolve around the school day and the school term.

She was “fortunate” that this worked for her.

4./ I’ve had other friends who tried to do business while doing the stay-at-home mum thing because they didn’t want to be without independent income. But some wound up losing money because they didn’t have a head for business despite trying one thing after another.

5./ Different stories for different people.

When people complain about the length of the school day, how early children wake up etc. compared to “back in the day.” They often fail to consider the challenges of the present day; or the permutations that make things this way.

6./ Today’s economics mean that many families now have 2 parents working outside the home. Distance to work, transport & timing mean that these parents often leave home before 7a.m.

In some homes, reliable domestic help is not available.

7./ Parents must ensure that children are ready to leave for school when they leave. This means young children must wake at unreasonably early hours for their ages. Those who go by school buses, must also leave before or at the time their parents leave.

8./ Jobs which theoretically are 8-5 have become 6-10 because traffic, competition to stay ahead and impress demanding employers.
The extended family living system isn’t so popular as it once was. So there’s a dearth of ready adults in the home to supervise young children.

9./ Yet people must educate their children.

Many schools now run almost 6am to 6pm. Some crèches run 6am- 9pm. This is the cost for parents. Keeping children in school to permit them keep their jobs. Parents encourage longer school days as a means of occupying children safely.

10./ Holidays aren’t much different. The extracurricular programs run by various schools are life-saving for many homes because how many leave-days do parents have vis-a-vis the number of days of holiday and half term?

The numbers don’t work.

11./These are some of the challenges of modern day parenting. These are the sacrifices people are forced to make & these are some of the discussions that intending couples & parents must address before they reach the hurdle so that they at least have an idea & prepare themselves.