The Duality of Parental Advice: A Tale of Wisdom and Misjudgment

Our parents are our teacher, our guide, and literally everything good one can think about because even at our tender age, when we knew nothing, they stood by us, nurtured us, and provided for our every need, including guidance and advice on what to do and not do. But as we grow up, we realize that not all of their advice was cool for our person, although that doesn't make them less of a loving or important person in our lives, and today I'll love to share two sides of a coin when I got advice from my parents.

Although I didn't grow up with my parents, I can't really pinpoint advice from my childhood, except for those that happened while I'm on holiday or when my academic results are out and it's sent to them to vet. Those were the only times I got their advice as a child, but going forward, I've come to move closer to them and draw from their well of wisdom, and below is some advice that almost jeopardizes the situation I got from my parents.

Advice that helped:

Growing up, my parents usually taught us to be kind and helpful to anyone we came across. To them, everyone needs help, and you on your path should do what you can to help. and such a situation attract blessing on its own, and I took that to heart and always tried to be helpful in any little way I could. I can remember one day during my undergraduate days, I was walking down a street, and I saw a woman who had a bike man just drop some cement bags far from her house. From their conversation, I decipher that the agreement with the bike man was that he take it inside her house.     With the way they were arguing, I wasn't too comfortable, especially with how the man abuses her. He said the distance was way too much for what he billed her, so I stepped in and told the woman not to worry and that I'd help her carry the cement down to her house. The bike man left, and some women around helped me lift the cement bags to my head, and you carried them to her house.   She was grateful and tried to offer me something as an expression of appreciation, but I refused to take anything and said I'm just trying to help and nothing more. Fast forward to 4 years after that particular day, and I was in my final year at the university, and I was told that I might have an extra year because they couldn't see one of my results. I was downcast because, although I had a carryover in that course, I've redo it and passed the course thereafter, so I don't know why such is happening.     When I got to the office, they told all of us about the situation and to prepare for another year. While that was still being said, a woman walked up to me and inquired about what was going on. I narrated my ordeals to her, and she asked if I'm sure I did the exam. I said yes, and she said I should follow her. She then told me to go to the office, where there were stacks of files, results, and a script, and she said we'd both search for the script or results together.

Believe me, it was just like a dream because I don't even know who she is, and here she's offering to help me. After almost 4 hours of ultimate search, we finally found the score file of my results for that particular course. It seems it was removed from the other copies, and that's why they couldn't find it and assumed I didn't do the course.   Joyfully, the woman and I walked down to where they're verifying the situation, and before you know it, I was cleared from any issues. I was so excited and just kneeled down to thank the woman. She said I don't need to thank her because I've also helped her at a point, and I was like, I don't even think I've seen you before, and she reminded me of the day I helped her carry cement to her house.   She said she never knew I was a student, but I was still grateful and thankful that the good deed lesson my parents taught me passed off and helped me graduate at the right time.

Advice gone wrong:

Since I graduated from secondary school and was in search of admission to the university, I've always had an interest in learning skills, but my parents, especially my dad, weren't cool with that. I guess, being a highly educated individual, he saw no reason why his children would stand so low to learn handwork, so he turned down all my efforts to learn tailoring back then. He said you can't amount to anything with tailoring, but education is the only key to success.   I tried to make him understand that I won't stop schooling, but his belief is that it'll distract me from focusing on my academics, and since he's my dad, I've got no one else to turn to for catering as a teenager. I had no choice but to give in to his advice, and a few years later, when I was in university, I learned about tailoring, and my dad, who doesn't want me to learn, brought fabric for me to sew to him, although he didn't admit his mistake, but I'm sure he knows.

That's about all the advice I got from my parents, and as you can see, some was helpful and some wasn't, but overall, I'm grateful.   Thanks so much for your time. Have a wonderful day ahead.

_{Thumbnail designed on canva}