adminFadzayi Maposah
Correspondent
There is nothing like a good meal. Add good company then it is wonderful.
Add good news, it can only be awesome!
When I was invited by my associate`s family to dinner it opened my mind and gave me many take away lessons. I am eager to learn. I have set up myself to learn at least one new thing every day.
Some days are better than others, I get to learn more than one thing.
After dinner, the parents and I went into the lounge where old school music was playing and taking me down memory lane! The parents are slightly younger than me so we can relate to some music that was popular when we were growing up.
The children were clearing the dining room table and washing up the dishes in the kitchen. All the children were involved, with the oldest leading the tasks.
That is a take away lesson, in case you had not picked it up yet. It is important for male and female children to learn age appropriate tasks and the value of work.
Life skills can basically be summarised through four Hs, hand, heart, head and health.
Each H is important and should be looked at in developing a rounded child who at some point will leave the home and go into the world.
I am always amazed that there are adults who cannot cook properly or seem not to be bothered about setting time aside to prepare a meal.
It is sad actually. On the other hand, there are 10 year olds who in a short space of time can serve a simple but delicious meal.
While I was relaxing with the parents the children could be heard chatting, laughing as they did the dishes in the kitchen.
I was curious…I am sure from these articles you have realised that I have a curious streak in me and age is not taming this streak, it could actually be getting worse as I get older!
I started by thanking the family for inviting me to dinner and making me part of their inner circle where they had shared the great milestone that their oldest daughter had achieved. I was really honoured, I told them.
I expressed that I was especially touched by how the father Chihwa (the wild cat totem) was in the lead of celebrating how his daughter had graduated to womanhood.
Chihwa simply smiled and nodded acknowledgement dismissing it all as just looking out for his girls.
I confessed that I was curious, why? I shared that my father WaMambo had been always supportive in all areas of my life and the lives of my siblings from when we were small children and even as adults.
He always did his best. I wanted to know why Chihwa was so excited about his eldest daughter graduating to womanhood.
I have always noted how one`s totem relates to their character. The Chihwas basically are like the cat, they prowl gently and they are not in a rush in their “superior” walk, even as they talk!
Taking off his bow tie and handing it over to his wife, he smiled before telling me why.
“Aunty Faa, I want to be the best father that my children can ever have or even wish for. I am not perfect, but I promise to do my very best. I want to support them in all areas of their life so that when I die, my children will be able to say that their father did his best,” he said before pausing.
Chihwa shared that it was when he was helping his son with homework that he just flipped through the text book and realised that the human reproductive system was in the Grade Five textbook. While the son was writing his homework, Chihwa was busy reading the primary school textbook.
Chihwa said it then dawned on him that the reproductive system was a broad and loaded subject and one that as a family they had not actually given time to discuss in detail except maybe sharing with the children that abuse was possible.
He said later when he was alone with Mrs Chihwa they had talked about puberty and how important it was to discuss with the children.
Chihwa said going through the son’s textbook had taken him down memory lane when back in high school, he and the other male students had teased females about the “it” experience which he said needed to be called as it is, menstruation. Another take away lesson!
The committed father said now just thinking that his daughters who were now in co-educational high school could be teased and taunted about a very natural phenomenon had scared him.
Such honesty. Mrs Chihwa had prepared the girls for the “it” experience but he did not want to be out on the terraces regarding an issue that was so vital and crucial in one’s development.
So they had organised a “girls only conference” where the parents met and discussed growing up openly. The parents confessed that initially the conference had been tense, the girls were edgy but had warmed up eventually. What followed was a “boys only conference” and the culmination of an “all stakeholder” conference.
Chihwa said it was like nature waited and accorded time after the conferences, then the “it” experience “landed!”
He said he went to work with a bounce in his step after his daughter knocked on their bedroom door and announced that “it” had happened, feeling that they had accorded her the necessary support.
He laughed that he had spent the day a bit tense and hoping that no boys would tease or make fun of her at school.
Mrs Chihwa chuckled that Chihwa was also on the “it” experience! Some fathers may never do heroic acts that get to be profiled on the main news, but they are everyday supermen!
Online Reporter