Parenting back then and now

I cannot help but to note the difference between bringing up children today and when we ourselves (over 30 years old) were kids. It’s also fascinating to listen to our parents’ generation tell us how it was when they were nurturing us back then.

For starters, there weren’t a variety of baby bath products – no bubbly baths and bath gels and scented this and that. We had panga soap, and to top off the bath experience – copious amounts of Vaseline applied liberally to make the skin shine like a ripe tomato (though I admit I do the Vaseline part to my kids).

Nappies were used more than diapers that were a luxury to many. And maids were dedicated to washing those nappies unlike today where they’ll quit on discovering that they have to wash off baby poop daily. Thank goodness for super absorbent diapers like Pampers which have made baby care so much easier!  And still on the subject of maids, we had one – not two or three to cater for two or three kids – just one. And they were fired once we were old enough to cook and clean!

Hmm. School. My baby boy PD started at 2 years 10 months. 5 months later he speaks to us in French and operates an Ipad better than me. I started nursery at 4 years, other kids at 5 years and in shags ‘What’s a nursery?” But we had more fun in terms of games, perhaps because TV started at 5pm with a few minutes of Choppy / He Man / Sheera / Saber Rider… good cartoons that didn’t have loads of blood, gore and witchcraft like they do today. Telly was after an active outdoor session of Kati / shake / tapo / mabuyu / hopscotch or simply running around the estate aimlessly chasing one other. 

We would walk in and out of each other’s houses, eating House of Manji biscuits and for ‘dessert’ we’d suck the sweet nectar out of honeysuckle flowers growing on fences.

There were no mobile phones. No distraction from the internet and social media. I don’t think we had gone past using DOS on computers yet (actually did computers exist in Kenya?). There was wholesome entertainment with little immorality.

Sometimes I wonder how my mum coped without some of the fancy gadgets that we have now. For example,  instead of baby carriers and fancy prams it was the shuka. Instead of breast pumps it was manual expression by hand, even at work! Knitting was a norm and also stitching the kids’ matching bed sheets and pillow cases that I look at with great pride today... our mums were and still are super hardworking women!

Children’s safety concerns were less - neighbors knew each other long before ‘Nyumba Kumi’ initiative, so it was easy to trace your kids’ whereabouts. Cases of kidnappings were infrequent, so it wasn’t terrifying to let your kid walk to the bus stop alone and jump into a bus or matatu.

Toys were simple. My sister even made her own doll in school! Today, there are kiddy make up sets, Ben 10 this and Hannah Montana that. It seems this generation’s creative side is being suppressed by technology on which you can draw without feeling the waxiness of a crayon on your fingertips, or the texture of plasticine when moulding shapes, or the dusty rubber of a used tyre as you roll it around. There’s too much sitting around now. 

A recent newspaper article stated that “Kids are around 15 percent less fit in cardiovascular terms than their parents were 30 years ago. If a young person is generally unfit now, then they are more likely to develop conditions like heart disease later in life”.

The list is endless. I have definitely realized that, childhood is the most precious, care-free and innocent stage of a person’s life. So since ours has passed, why don’t we make our children’s / students’ childhood era something to remember with pride, joy and nostalgia 20 years from now? Their lives truly are, literally, in our hands.

The author, Janet Kanini is Pampers Brand Ambassador