THERE’S POWER IN CHILDHOOD!

Hello steemians!
Here I am to speak on the power of childhood.
Firstly, I will love to start with a quick definition of childhood.

According to Oxford dictionary, Childhood is the time during which one is a child, from between infancy and puberty.

Childhood is the stage in one’s life that determines how one turns out to be, what one turns out to be, but possibly irrespective of when one turns out to be who one is destined to be.

I am going to site some instances in my life to explain how childhood had defined my siblings and my career and made us who we are today in the family.

It is very possible to predict the character and notable role of a child in the future by their childhood. Although changes occur due to environmental factors but childhood is a period where a child acquires a lot of skills.

During childhood, any skill or act a child acquires solely becomes internalized and becomes an embedded part of the child. This is to say that it becomes impossible and difficult to take that skill out of the child.

• Language: A language a child acquires during childhood builds up the child’s accent.
• Behaviour: A role that a child gets to play frequently during childhood builds up their characters and talents.
• Fear: A threat that weakens a child or an instance that they never realize the truth early enough scares them.
• Habit: habits Internalized during childhood are always very difficult to cure.

CASE STUDY: ARCHIBONG’S FAMILY.

FIRST DAUGHTER: My elder sister was born into a family that waited 10-11 years before childbearing and that led to a lot of attention on her since birth.

My parents were pleased, happy and ready to care for her because of this. They spent a lot on her and developed the habit of buying expensive stuffs and gifts for her until things went waaaa.

Up till date she is the one in the family who sees the need to spend huge sum of money on some material possessions. As the first daughter, my dad was always away on police duty for weeks and days while my mum would go for church events all night or weekends.

My elder sister would take care of the family and assumed responsibilities of a mother. Up till date even in the presence of my mum she calls up the entire house to duty and plays the role of the upkeep and chores attendance. This character installed a mindset of leadership and she always want to lead wherever she was.

My mother was fond of scolding us, shouting at us and this made my sister the louder of the house. She would shout at our mistakes instead of correcting us and we would say like mother like daughter and in an attempt to proving that wrong, she would correct us. Today she corrects mistakes more than she shouts at them.

SECOND BORN FIRST SON: 'Don’t you know you are the first son and will take over your father?' My parents would scold him. When he engaged in argument or fight with younger ones, 'you should protect rather than fight your siblings'.

Little boy turned man! Up till today my elder brother has never fought anyone at home. He either corrects or keeps shut. The talk of protection took out entirely the spirit of fighting a sibling no matter the argument, he never quarrels with a sibling. The boy doesn’t disturb and he only asks for what belongs to him and finds it difficult to beg. And doesn’t bother someone. Once he asks you once or twice you do not comply, he is off.

As a first son he grew up always having to hand over his property to his younger brother who was demanding. If two caps were given and he made a choice while the younger brother requested same cap, he will handover that to him to avoid quarrels. This over protective and less concerned character turned him to his current personality. He moves mountain but never embraces the concept of die trying.

THIRD BORN SECOND DAUGHTER: I came in when I was less needed and was always there to fill in my sisters absence. My first slicing of onion was because she was busy. As I cut it into big slices, my mum scolded me asking if I’ve not been watching my sister.

Growing up to be like her had been one of my goals . The good grades she always had compared to my primary 1-2 when I was not among top five students with good results.

Mama used to tell us tales and I was closest to my younger brother. In absence of mummy, sister would tell us tales from books. Later she grew up and wasn’t interested.

I would watch my brother hunger for stories, then I would tell him stories and he would say he had heard those ones. He had heard everything so I had to come up with something new. Then I started creating stories and the spirit of creativity came into me.

This is why I’m better a story teller. I’m better creating new scenes and instances than working on an existing scenario. Bed wetting was marvelous and it pains me to say my younger brother stopped bedwetting before I did. This made me always pileup my own dirty clothes one way.

I had my corner separate and was self centered with my properties. I had dolls and a box of tailoring materials for sewing of clothes for my dolls. The day a needle was found on the bed later confessed to have been set up by my younger brother as vengeance on a fight we had, my doll's equipment was chased out. I started sewing and catering for my dolls outside the house, at the verandah. This made me a bit of a loner, I felt rejected. And only my elder sister sympathized with me.

I didn’t always need anybody’s contribution. I’ve never had a birthday celebration by my parents except when I was 1-2 that I can barely recall. But my elder siblings usually had. I felt less loved by my parents.

This pushed me into expressing my feelings of sadness by writing and perhaps built my writing career. When they were having heated family conversations, I would be attending to my dolls or writing.

Although, a lot of my loneliness trait had changed but this actually boosted me into a one man’s squad. I could carryout any task alone and felt more comfortable doing any task alone.
Whenever I had a partner, sometimes conflict arose but I've worked on this.

THE LAST BORN: Hell no! I don’t want to write much about him, last born you know how they always turn out to be; spoilt, stubborn and abusive. Here it goes — the end of the line.
'They all chose meet before me, so mine is smaller' they would add up for him.

He believes everyone should see to his success because he is the last born. He was dependent. But his aggressive behavior made him a fighter, one who fights the family and also fights for the family.

He has the boldness to ask after hurting you because he feels you have no choice but to dance to his tune because he is the last born. He is hardworking but has a lazy approach to everything. He is wise because he learns from everyone’s mistake and weaknesses. This is a clear definition of what this young man is today.

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Other studies also show that low self esteem develops from childhood and other behaviors exhibited by individuals.

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Correct a character while at childhood. Character internalized during childhood defines you for life except...

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