Her Mind Narrates…. Surviving My Parents

You know how people say how your twenties are the craziest years of your life, well there is no disputing that fact, but have you seen a 10-year-old wild out? Now, before you get carried away in no way was I going clubbing or staying out the only illegal thing I did A LOT was playing outside with my friends WITHOUT asking for permission.

Growing up my parents were super strict; you could get the beating of your life for breathing the wrong way. Everyone in our neighbourhood till this day knows that my parents do not play, they mean serious business. But home girl has always been gangster I was not having any of it, I loved playing outside with my friends and I felt like they were just ruining my life with all these insanely strict rules. I was known as the rebellious one and my sister the sweet one, which annoyed me cause my family was blind to all my sisters wrong doings and she had a good way of hiding it from them. Me on the other hand was always at the receiving end of my sister’s evil streak. My beloved sister and I fought like Tom and Jerry. She knew how scared I was of spider webs - so she would take a stick and get spider webs all over it and chase me all around our yard, I would run and scream for her to stop but she enjoyed torturing me, and come to think of it now it’s quite funny cause she’s sooooo afraid of spiders now. I say its karma☺

Everyone thought I was a problem child and the truth is I wasn’t, I just wanted them to let me play with my friends Nomhle, Sharon, Jessica, Rainy, Kamogelo and Cammy (the squad). I wanted to have sleep overs, go to the Gariep fees (like a carnival with rides) and birthday celebrations like other kids, but they never did. So, one day I decided that I will stop asking them for permission. I went to Nomie’s cousins party which was far from where we stayed without letting my parents know. But before we left, her mother told me to go home and ask my grandma if it’s ok if I go with them and I did just that, I went home looked at my grandmother and thought ‘’she would never agree to this’’ so instead; I drank water brushed my hair and told my grandma I am playing outside with Nomie and happily walked out of that house cause I’m about to have me some fun.

However, what I did not plan on was getting home late. The party was awesome there was a jumping castle, swings and so many board games to play Nomie’s family always hosted the best parties for their children. When the sun started to set that’s when I began panicking cause my granny wants me in the yard before it gets dark; so this meant by now she must have figured out that I’m not in the yard or at Nomies’s house and Nomie’s parents didn’t seem like they were planning on leaving anytime soon. But fear not, I always have an ace up my sleeve, so I started telling my friend that ‘’I really enjoyed spending the day with her and her family and that we should do it more often cause it’s so much fun. However, if we are going to do all this all the time then I should go home now cause you know how much my granny hates it when I come home late and then next time she wont let me go out with you guys again.’’

I may have been the youngest but when it came to Nomie I knew exactly which buttons to press to get her to do just what I wanted. She was just as scared of my granny as I was, next thing she ran to her mom and told her mom we need to get me home cause my granny will be upset if I go home too late and then my granny will not allow her to play with me anymore. Eventually her mom agreed to take us home; the entire drive I was nerve wrecking because I knew I was in real deep shit. When the carpooled up in Nomie’s driveway, my foot had not even touched the ground yet, but my granny already opened our front door, we stayed across the street from their house. My thought in that moment was ‘’I’m dying today.’’

 My granny walked over to the car and asked me ‘’where do you come from, I’ve been looking for you and I was so worried’’ judging by her tone she was furious and so was my friends mom cause right there she realised I never went to ask my granny’s consent at all. My friend’s mom explained that she told me to ask if its ok if I join them at a family birthday celebration and she thought my granny knew about everything. My grandmas just gave me one look that said, ‘’I’m going to beat you up once we get home’’, I was not spanked. My little lie was discovered, and the air was cleared between my granny and aunty Violet, Nomie’s mom. That night I was scolded for what felt like hours and I got the beating of my life…lol. But that did not stop me from being a good girl with bad habits.

 One would think that I learned my lesson after that day but old habits die hard and so the story continues… a few week after I got caught in my little lie a friend of mine, Jenny asked the squad to join her at their house cause her parents weren’t there, she was all alone and wanted to play, so of course we all agreed and went along to play in their yard (keep in mind Jenny is the eldest in the group). Let me give you the down low on Jenny, she’s a TROUBLEMAKER, she’s the kind that will tell you to do something as silly as stealing lemons from the neighbours’ tree (I had a PhD in climbing trees) without getting caught but because this child was a demon she then ran to my parents and told them you what I did just to get a laugh out of it. You know the saying that goes ‘’once a snitch always a snitch’’ even if it means lying to save her own behind, well that my dear friends is the definition of Jenny. And this is why Jenny and I were always at odds.

Coming back to our little play date at Jenny’s house, we were all having fun, running around laughing and then starts the dancing cause we all just love dancing. Things get so lit everyone is out strutting their best moves, until Jenny says we can dance at the back of her father’s Bakkie, which was open and we all perfectly fitted, which meant we could stand and move around freely. We felt like we were in a hip-hop video because we were grooving to Chingy and Ludacris’s Holiday Inn…I mean we just needed someone to record this moment for us. I had so much fun it felt like I was in a movie, then my dearest sweetheart of a friend suggest the we dance on the roof of the Bakkie and everyone said no accept for me and Nomie; dumb move. We were the youngest and clearly the dumbest, Jenny insisted and said ‘’nothing will happen man just do it’’ we asked her ‘’are you sure its ok’’ and she continued to say it would be perfectly fine and her dad would never know what we did. We were SIX years old and knew absolutely nothing about cars and not to mention that Nomie and I were always the bold ones and just liked trying out knew things, so we danced until we were tired. Shame we left our stamp on that Bakkie.

It was getting late, so we all decided to go home. A few hours later there was a knock on our door, it was the police, they asked my mom and grandma to please escort me to Jenny’s house, as we walk across the street my mom slightly hits the back of my head and says why are you always in trouble. Once we get there, I see Nomie as well. Once we got there, Jenny’s dad says we damaged his car and wants us arrested. I started crying cause this man was serious and he wants the police to take us away from our parents. I try to explain to mom that we did not want to, but Jenny insisted she said nothing would happen. Miss thing denied everything and said ‘’she begged us to stop but we didn’t want to listen.’’ I got so mad at hearing all her lies. Luckily, the cops said we are way too young for them to arrest us so they cannot help him. That was truly a life altering experience, after that night I never gave my mom a headache ever again because I now know bad girls go to jail and good girls listen to their parents.

Such a funny story lol but she is lying she is still very naughty to this day. She has just mastered the art of keeping it low key. That was a trip down memory lane, just reminded me of the many mischievous things we did as kids. Having a healthy childhood is probably one thing that we all take for granted, yet these memories seems to form the basis of who we are. Nga Tshivenda hupfi: Mutakalo u to di tela (You create your own happiness)A principle we had a full understanding of growing up. As a person who also grew up with strict parents ,I have grown to appreciate being a sheltered child. I guess it had its perks. A special thank you to my baby doll Sammy. Sammy is a Kimberlite I met here in Pretoria; I am drawn to these people. Always…

 

My Mind Speaks