ADULT BABIES

"Mummy I have not eaten" "Mummy I am feeling hungry oooo....." Daddy! "How about the ten thousand naira you promised me last week?" These are statements you hear from the mouths of kids or babies. No one would be surprise if he or she hears a baby saying these words. But when a forty years old grown up adult speaks these way, then I think it calls for attention.

It is disappointing to hear grown up adults speak like little children. Adults who are suppose to be taking care of others are crying to be taken care of. People who are suppose to be feeding and fending for other people are pleading to be fed. It is an eyesore! It is a big blow to us as a people because the caliber of grown up adults we are breeding are only growing physically - mentally, psychologically they are not growing at all!

Responsibility is one of the signs that shows our maturity from childhood to adulthood. Taking responsibility to take care of ones self is the first step toward being an independent adult. What we find all over our society today is an army of physically grown up men who are totally irresponsible in every aspects of the word. They not only shy away from their responsibilities, they intentionally run away from them. They cannot even take care of themselves let alone taking care of their siblings or aged parents. Most of this young adults who are above the age of thirty still want to be taken care of by the old parents. Their mother still feeds them, cloth them, house them, give them pocket money and do the necessary things a woman does for her teenage kids. They still cry to collect money from their parents.

A pathetic story of a young man above the age of forty who still lives with his parents surfaced recently online. In his desperate search for money, he went ahead to sell the only family house where his aged parents are still living in without the knowledge of his father (the owner of the house) and disappeared. Some people said he travelled abroad, other people said he eloped with a new lover to an undisclosed destination to live a prodigal life style with the proceed he got from selling the building. Be that as it may, baba and his wive were kicked out of the house he built with his hard earned money during his youthful days.

The bottom line is that parents of this generation have failed in raising responsible children who would take care of them in their old age. They have failed in raising hardworking young people who would give them rest in the nearest future as they move closer to their graves. Because they keep on raising dependants, instead of independent adults, these adult babies have now become a burden to them, to the family and to the society. This is why we have an army of irresponsible young men and women who want to get rich while still sleeping on their bed! May God help our generation.

BY PATRICK JAMES

+2348138534313

jamesboro1987@gmail.com