(ThySistas.com) “It takes a village to raise a child.”
At a young age I would always hear the elders use this phrase. I never could grasp the concept or understand why they spoke this so frequently. However, I grew up, and I started to see for myself exactly what that phrase meant. Let’s just say a lot has changed since then, and for things to get back to the way it used to be, we must bring back the village.
When I was coming up and playing in the neighborhood, kids would fight but the parents weren’t always outside. In most situations another adult would talk to those children, and they did not argue 
back. If a child argued back with an adult, the parents would then discipline them for disrespecting a grown up. Adults held conversations with other parents of the child or children with ease. Parents with troubled children were not so quick to argue with adults, because more than likely, their child was in the wrong.
It didn’t matter which child started the fight or arguments they both were reprimanded for it. Chastising did not always mean a spanking. Many children were punished by having their privileges restricted. Some punishments included: not being able to watch tv, play outside, or talk on the phone. Each household punishment differed from the next depending on the parent and child.
Many parents take up for their children and fuss with adults, in the new generation, without knowing what happened. Even in their wrong doings, several parents do not want anyone to correct their child. And with the rise of young adults becoming parents, the statement “it takes a village to raise a child” is starting to die down. Meaning that we must bring back the “village”, by being family oriented as a community.
I remember adults correcting me if I did something wrong in front of my mother, and she never intervened with what the adult was saying to me, simply because my mother knew I was flip by the lip, and she would pop my lips every time I tried to speak back. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, older cousins, friends of the family, or grown- ups in the community could handle children when they did something wrong and then tell their parents exactly why they were punished or spanked without the parents getting upset. Today there are parents that are ready to fight when anyone even family touches their child or handles them “wrong.”
There was a time when adults could correct kids with bad manners. A child was not allowed to walk pass up a house full of adults, and not speak to everyone. Parents quickly corrected the kids by saying, “You know better than that, you speak when you see grown- ups.” And the child would speak and that would be the end of the discussion.
Teachers cannot even correct students without the parents coming to the school and jumping on their case. When parents uphold children in their wrong doing, it makes them think that what they are doing is okay. And it is not. Adults should never have to worry about another parent fussing with them because a kid got out of the way or did something they had no business doing. Any type of harsh chastisement is out of the question, however correcting a child when they are wrong should be allowed by another adult. Parents of the child cannot do it alone, why it takes a village to raise a child.
Staff Writer; Sha’Nelle V. Harris
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