How To Make Your ‘Aje-butter’ Child Streetwise (Part 2)

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Oluwatoyin Osaigbovo

Continued from Part 1.

House chores

Let your child carry out chores such as sweeping, washing of clothes and plates, cooking and cleaning.

You will need to take drastic measures and dedicate time to ensure that your child learns and carries out these chores. The house-help will have to be carried along and given strict instructions not to help.

My daughter started learning to wash plates and her underwear at 6 years old. Many people raised eyebrows but I figured that was how I was trained and it has worked. Now, at 8, she can wash her clothes, though she takes a little longer than an adult would.

Teach your child to make quick meals also, and by 9, start teaching how to cook proper meals.

Let them watch you haggle

Do take your child to the market from time to time and them watch you haggle. They need to know why we haggle and learn the art. Yes, it is an art! This helps them learn the value of money. You can practice at home and even have fun with this by creating a game out of this. You can practice with street traders while in the traffic too. Make them haggle in traffic and see if they can get a good bargain.

Let your child learn how you manoeuvre within the market. Also make your child pay and collect change from time to time, even at a supermarket.

Exposure to uncomfortable situations

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Sometimes, to teach your child something new, you will need to put them in a difficult situation, sometimes depriving them of some luxury.

My mum once locked up the gas for about a week so she could teach us to use a coal pot for cooking. I also learned how to use a calabash to remove stones from local ofada rice this way.

Create scenarios in your head and teach them to deal with it.

Contact with streetwise kids

Let your child have some contact with streetwise kids by taking them to games. You can take your son to a football field where streetwise kids play. Do this, under supervision and speak to them about their experience to ensure they learn the right values.