Between a rock and hard place:the plight of a mother
By Chipo Madzima Chipango
To leave her child or not? To choose the child or the husband? That is the question that often haunts
her and at every turn that question always comes to her mind. Yet she
loves him dearly but what can she do about her child, her sweet little
baby whose smile can melt even the coldest of hearts but to him it does
not have the same effect.
This is a question that often trouble thousands of women every day.
To choose between the man they love and their children. With the
rising cases in the number of people getting divorced in Zimbabwe
this has led to the rise in blended families or step families.
Step families or blended families are families where one has children
that are not genetically related to the other parent. Either one or
both parents have children from the previous relationship.
Problems start to arise when one of the parents does not want to
care for children that are not biologically related to them. This
problem will result in the biological parent being put in a position
at times were they are forced to choose between the relationship and
their child.
How then does the child feel in the event that they have to then go
and live with other relatives for the sake of peace. If it is a man
who is rejecting the child brought in from a woman's previous relation-
ship they raise the point that they can not care for a child from a
different lineage as him or they cannot take care of another man's
child. Is this really the case or it at times is the ego speaking.
This issue does not only affect the man the woman also at times tend
to have hatred toward children that are not their own.
The one individual that tends to suffer most of the time is the child
who becomes prone to abuse, suffer from low self esteem and
often turn to harmful elements like drug abuse and prostitution to fill in the void.
In our current society were divorce cases are on the rise and blended
families are on the increase,I pray for the humane side of us to overcome and take children as they are; just children. One should put themselves in the shoes of parenthood and ask the question; how would they have they felt if it was their child being put through so much trauma?
One thing that we all know for sure is no child does apply to be born and they must not bear the brunt of adult disagreements and misunderstandings lest we breed generations of juvenile deliquents
To leave her child or not? To choose the child or the husband? That is the question that often haunts
her and at every turn that question always comes to her mind. Yet she
loves him dearly but what can she do about her child, her sweet little
baby whose smile can melt even the coldest of hearts but to him it does
not have the same effect.
This is a question that often trouble thousands of women every day.
To choose between the man they love and their children. With the
rising cases in the number of people getting divorced in Zimbabwe
this has led to the rise in blended families or step families.
Step families or blended families are families where one has children
that are not genetically related to the other parent. Either one or
both parents have children from the previous relationship.
Problems start to arise when one of the parents does not want to
care for children that are not biologically related to them. This
problem will result in the biological parent being put in a position
at times were they are forced to choose between the relationship and
their child.
How then does the child feel in the event that they have to then go
and live with other relatives for the sake of peace. If it is a man
who is rejecting the child brought in from a woman's previous relation-
ship they raise the point that they can not care for a child from a
different lineage as him or they cannot take care of another man's
child. Is this really the case or it at times is the ego speaking.
This issue does not only affect the man the woman also at times tend
to have hatred toward children that are not their own.
The one individual that tends to suffer most of the time is the child
who becomes prone to abuse, suffer from low self esteem and
often turn to harmful elements like drug abuse and prostitution to fill in the void.
In our current society were divorce cases are on the rise and blended
families are on the increase,I pray for the humane side of us to overcome and take children as they are; just children. One should put themselves in the shoes of parenthood and ask the question; how would they have they felt if it was their child being put through so much trauma?
One thing that we all know for sure is no child does apply to be born and they must not bear the brunt of adult disagreements and misunderstandings lest we breed generations of juvenile deliquents
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