28/10/2025
VERY INSTRUCTIVE ARTICLE BY FRANK MUTUBILA. READ ON:
By Frank Mutubila
Children are the sweetest gift that God can give to any home, they come with laughter, with innocence and with the promise of tomorrow. But even a gift as precious as a child can become a source of pain when handled without wisdom. Love without direction becomes destruction, and a home without discipline becomes a place of confusion.
There is no joy in raising a child who always has their way, a child who is never told no, and who believes the world revolves around them. That is not love, it is silent harm. When children are allowed to rule, parents lose their authority, and the home loses its balance. A child must know that love has limits, and discipline is a language of care, not cruelty.
Good parenting listens with patience but leads with firmness. It does not break a child’s spirit, it shapes it. It teaches the young to speak with respect and to act with humility. It teaches them that freedom without boundaries is dangerous, and that obedience is not weakness but strength. Bad parenting looks away when a child misbehaves, it replaces correction with excuses, and it hides behind modern words like “let them express themselves.” Yet freedom without wisdom is chaos, and expression without manners is rebellion.
A child who insults the maid or mocks the gardener is already showing the future in their heart. When a child can humiliate the house help, laugh at the poor relative, or shout at the guard, it will not be long before that same child disrespects their own parents. Disrespect begins small, like a spark, but soon burns down the whole house.
Many of the children we see on the streets were not born there. They ran there after rejecting the hand of discipline. They wanted freedom without guidance, and now they are prisoners of their own choices. But when parents guide their children early, when they use both love and correction, they shape noble hearts that grow into responsible citizens.