Good morning and what a wonderful privilege to witness another Christmas Eve. He that has brought you this far will not leave nor forsake you. Be grateful for life regardless of your circumstance.

As we round up this series, let us put Single Parenting in proper perspective. Single Parenting means raising a child or children by a single parent, whicg could be the father or mother. It can happen as a result of death of one of the parents, separation or divorce, unaccepted pregnancy, or abdication of parental responsibilities.

The original design for a family is to have a father, made up of a mother and the children. The author of family, God, knows the importance of each of the parents in the life of the children. He designed it such that the baby is conceived through the seed and egg of the father and mother, the seed grows into foetus and is carried to term by the mother, the baby is born into the warm embrace of the mother, and grows into adulthood through the strong training of the father.

Each of these stages play an important formative role in the life of the child. For instance, a child without the motherly love at birth usually grows up cold hearted. Such children are usually unemotional, they have no empathy and can be very ruthless, selfish and mean.

A child without the fatherly training too usually grows to be too soft or weak, and buckles when faced with life challenges, especially when there is no fatherly figure at all in their growing up. The father’s blessing also go a long way in shaping and guiding the child into adulthood.

Does this mean that such children are at a disadvantage? No, they do not have to be. There are provisions to ameliorate this weaknesses. Such can be found in mentors, religious centres, self help books, and personal development. But what do you do when the mentor or spiritual guide also needs to be helped. Can the blind lead the blind? An incomplete man or woman cannot offer help to another incomplete person for completeness.

This is perhaps one of the reasons our leaders fail too often. An incomplete leader would have to deal with various complexes and this would impact on his decisions and actions.

We need to also start seeing parenting as societal responsibility. In our own days, any adult could spank you for wrongdoing, it does not matter if they are related to you or not, and you dare not even report to your parents, otherwise you will get more spanking. This approach places the responsibility of parenting on the society, extending the confines of family to the society. Unfortunately, modern times have eroded this culture and this is to our own detriment.

It is therefore important that we begin to take parenting seriously and see it as God given assignment. Children are the heritage of God. We are God’s custodian in raising children to become who God wants them to be. When we fail in this responsibility, it will not only affect the child, it will come back to haunt us and the society at large.

I ask and receive grace and wisdom for every struggling parent right now. I pray restoration to every broken home and I speak peace to every troubled home in Jesus name. Amen.

I will be taking a break for the year, but can be reached through any of the contact details below my signature. Thank you for following me all through the year and particularly this series. Let us do it together again in 2019. Together we can make the world better.

Have a wonderful week and Merry Christmas and Prosperous New Year ahead.

Adewumi Oni

08028395824

09095321147

wumioni@yahoo.com

Instagram: onadol

Twitter: @DewumiOni

There is a saying in Yoruba that goes like this, “Iya ni Wura, Baba ni dingi”. Translated, this means “Mother is Gold and Father is the Mirror”. Gold is one of the precious metals and perhaps the one commanding the highest value, at least until recently when Palladium challenging that position.

Mothers are as precious as gold. Just like gold, they are highly malleable, adjusting to every situation or condition. They help to build the spirit of endurance, patience and perseverance in children. Mothers might be the weaker vessels, but they have a heart of gold and are quite strong inside.

They also help in developing homely skills in the children. Especially the girl child learns how to be a good home keeper from the mother, while forming the image of the kind of husband she wants from the father.

So, both father and mother play very important role in shaping the lives of children. Let me use a computer system to illustrate this. A computer system is made up of the software and hardware. The software is a set of instructions programmed into the hardware, which guides the operations of the computer system. Softwares are not touchable, while hardwares are touchable and visible.

Mothers play the role of softwares, they codify values into the child’s life, while fathers play more of the hardware role, helping the child’s physical and mental growth. As you know that a computer system cannot function without a software and an hardware, likewise a child may not be at his or her best without both parents playing their roles.

This is why single parenting poses a lot of challenges for every party involved; the single parent, the child and the society. While appreciating that some did not choose to become single parents, it is quite disturbing that many young people are now deliberately choosing the route of single parenting, forgetting that while they may have achieved their personal goals, they often end up raising dysfunctional children.

For us to put single parenting in proper perspective, I will devote the last part of this series to single parenting and how our society is approaching the edge due to parents either shirking or failing in discharging their responsibilities.

So please join me as we do this together next week. Have a wonderful week and Merry Christmas in advance.

Adewumi Oni

08028395824

09095321147

wumioni@yahoo.com

Instagram: onadol

Twitter: @DewumiOni