Mrs. Sarafina woke her seven children up at 3 a.m. every day of the week.
As always, Mrs. Sarafina woke her seven children up at 3 a.m. every day of the week. The night before, they had soaked and taken off the skin from the beans in preparation for blending. The next morning, they used the grinding stone to blend the beans they would use for bean balls (akara) that their mother would sell. In the rural community they lived, there was no access to electricity and the machines that could blend beans. The children spent hours laboring over the grinding stone to produce a smooth paste from the beans. Mrs. Sarafina placed a huge frying pan outside the family home which fortunately for her was on a busy street and fried the bean balls. These bean balls were a convenient breakfast for adults and children who did not want to go through the trouble of cooking. Sometimes, people did not have enough time to make breakfast. Not every family was like Mrs Serafina’s who woke up in the “wee” hours of the morning to cook. As she fried, the children stood beside her wrapping the balls for customers who came to buy. The oldest of the children was responsible for collecting money paid by customers. He had a bag strapped to his waist for this purpose.
The children were already dressed for school. As soon as the school bell rang, their mother shooed them off to school with their own wraps of “akara”. She then stayed back to complete the morning sale, after which she took her goods and went to her store in the open market to sell. Usually, Mrs. Serafina wrapped up her morning sale by 9 a.m. when workers had arrived at work and children were in school. When her children closed from school, they went to the market to join her to sell. At the end of the day they all came home together. Mrs. Sarafina exemplified the importance of hard work to her children. Compared to the other wives in the polygamous setting, she was the only person to acquire a piece of land and build a house. Not surprising all her children prospered in everything they laid their hands to do.
The beauty of a hard working mother cannot be overemphasized. Generally, the key values that build a child's life are instilled by a mother. Why do I say so? Mothers are with their children most of the time even when the mother has to go to work. This is especially true when children are still developing. Fathers spend most of the time working and when they are at home, the children cling more to their mothers. So mothers are in a better position to notice and correct little habits and attitudes before these develop into something serious. This is why if a child is pampered, the mother is likely the person who allowed this. Women are more sentimental and emotional than men. They tend to ignore or overlook weaknesses their children exhibit. However it is the duty of mothers to consciously look out for and correct attitudes that will lead to irresponsible adults!
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