It's every parent's desire that their children become like them or even better. But this will never happen. When we were brought up, we were addressed to in our real names given during birth and rarely could you hear a parent calling their son or daughter "baba" or "mum".
Calling you such names was believed to spoil the child and it truly does as children nowadays are a spoilt lot.
By the age of ten, you could comfortably wash your clothes. But what about now? A ten-years-old kid can't even take a bath.
The househelp does everything right from waking them up in the morning, getting them ready for school and ensuring they take a breakfast.
In the evening she ensures the children do their homework.
In the olden days, you learnt things the hard way. No one asked you whether you got homework to do. It was up to you to do your homework, get yourself ready for school early enough lest the ruthless teachers catch up with your "nyama ya serikali".
There were also free swimming lessons with free coaches at all rivers and dams. Here you first learnt how to take a bath as you climbed up the ladder of being a professional swimmer.
Having grown up in such environments, one got exposed to many things which made one be responsible unlike these days where children are treated so delicately that they risk growing into irresponsible adults and God knows what their children will be like.
Our children cannot be anything close to us in terms of morals and behaviour if we continue pampering them in the name of love.
If they have to be better, we must take back the spared rod and bring up the children in a way that will mould them into becoming responsible citizens of this country.