Straight From The Horse's Mouth

Hello everyone,
Rise and shine people, it’s a beautiful day!!! 

Hope you all had a good weekend, and the mothers had a nice mothers’ day celebration here in Nigeria. Someone asked if we didn’t just celebrate International Women’s Day; yes we did, and we should celebrate mothers daily. Being a mother has undoubtedly made me appreciate the sacrifices my mother went through all the more. We deserve it, the fathers try too, but common, mothers rule the world by shaping the lives we carried, birthed and nurtured.


My cousin got married over the weekend, and on my way to the gym that Saturday morning, I quickly remembered that I hadn’t called him to say ‘congratulations’, so I made the call. Immediately he picked the call he started apologising for not getting around to telling me personally about the date, and asking me not to be offended as he was overwhelmed with preparations and the days just flew by so fast. I quickly calmed him down and assured him I wasn’t in the least offended as I know how things can be. He didn’t tell me personally, but my mum did, and to me, it was no biggie as it didn’t matter whom I heard it from. 

I remember when my sister had her baby last year, and as the excited aunt I quickly shared the news on Facebook, a childhood friend of hers actually called her and was berating my sister for not telling her that she had given birth, questioning why she had to read about it on Facebook. My sister who was still in serious pains of course angrily told her off, and suffice it to say that their over 20 years old relationship slowly grew cold afterwards.

I don’t know if this obsession over hearing news from the horse’s mouth, or getting first-hand information is peculiar to Nigerians. How realistic is it to expect a new mother to call or text everybody and tell them she had given birth? Some people actually frown if you don’t send them wedding invitation card; to them, the popular bulk SMS invitation we send doesn’t cut it. Some actually demand that you leave whatever you’re doing and go round with your fiancé or fiancée, as the case may be, so they’d personally meet him/her before the wedding. They see it as a form of disrespect if they don’t you guys don’t come personally, probably with a drink, to inform him / her about the wedding.

You’d be shocked that some do it when someone dies! Like seriously?! My father died and I was expected to tell everyone personally? How unrealistic is that?! People shouldn’t make things difficult abeg. If a celebrant doesn’t get round to meeting you personally, or telling you about it, don’t make an issue out of it please. This is part of that entitlement mentality we’re talking about. If you don’t want to call or attend the event, okay, but citing the fact that you were not personally informed as the reason, when you know it wasn’t done out of spite, is just plain selfish, in my opinion. Imagine if a celebrant has an accident and dies on his/her way to yours just because you insisted on being visited personally, you’d be happy?

Life should be made simpler, not more complicated.

Have a blessed week ahead. 
Peace...