With me here, I have a few stories of people who have gone through different family structures and arrangements. I thought we should hear their stories out so that we understand better.

Moreover, K narrates the story of how her father had been very brutal with the mum while growing up. K and her siblings have had moments to put up with a family broken arrangement and a constant shedding of tears and unending pain. “Sometime back in 2015,my mother was heavily pregnant with my youngest sibling and my dad came home one day and brutally gave a beating to my mum. My siblings together with my mum and I left our home and went to stay with my aunt who gladly opened the doors for us. My mum would constantly receive calls from another woman who claimed to be my father’s wife. After a while, my parents reconciled and we are here,”she says. One of the things the narrator regrets is the fact that her younger siblings had to go through hell while kids and there was no better way to explain to the children the terror of hardship parenting.

“My name is X”, since she did not want the name disclosed, änd I have lived through single parenting then my mother remarried later on, well it is technically remarriage since only the dowry has been paid, she said.” She narrates on how she was born living with two parents then her father was given a job transfer to Naivasha. There were common visits from the father to them or them to the father until the visits ceased. That is how the father left them and he remarried to another family. The amazing thing is that her father came to visit her when she was in her secondary academic stage and the sad thing was, she could not really recognize her dad. Later on, her mother introduced her to one of her male friends after she clearly stated that her father was not coming back to them and after frequent lunch and dates with the mum’s friend, she began to slowly accept the new dad who was willing to marry the mum.

Another character that I will dub S has a story of being brought up by the grandparents and she states of how it has affected her. “All my life I have not known of a life without my grandmother,”she starts. “People ask me about my parents and here is my story,”she continues. “My mom gave birth to me while she was still young, she had just finished her high school and my grandparents decided to help my mum in raising me. After one and a half years, my mother left for the USA to study and now my grandparents took full responsibility. Playing with other kids seemed to be difficult since the kids would speak of how their parents did things for them and well, here I was without a clue of what my mum has ever done. I could even lash out due to the lack of understanding. I could frequently stay at my friends place just to have a feel of how a nuclear family looks.” “But growing up, I have learnt that I am unique and am blessed to have both a grandparents love and a parents love. However don’t ask me about my dad, hahaha, I am still in search of him but my mum married a mzungu.”she concluded.

This are real life examples of the changes in parenting systems and I bet you have your own story on this. Let me know on the comments down below.

Sharleen ♥️♥️♥️