Positive Parenting

On Sunday, April 15, 2012, we hosted Dr. Ken and Dr. Kim Denorvesk with other USA friends. By midday, they had arrived home, and they left late in the evening. We last met in November 2010 when they came to our giveaway and wedding functions. This time around, we had a lot to catch up on.   With all the excitement and enjoyable moments, we had with our visitors, we retired to bed early. On Monday at around 5 a.m., there was a strange pain that my wife complained about, and we realized that it was time to head to Mulago Hospital. We were checked into at Mulago Hospital that morning. The experience I can never forget is what happened on Monday night between 11 p.m. and 7:15 a.m. We were taken to the labour ward, and my dear, someone kept telling me, “I feel there is too much heat here; come and massage me.” I would feel the heat in my hands, and someone would claim that I was not doing much. I need to increase the pace and massage the whole back. Luckily enough, I had friends like Su...

As we were soon close to giving birth to our 3rd child, we began planning which hospital and on which dates this should happen. Our agreement was to be checked into the hospital on 23rd April 2015 at Kampala Hospital and to deliver on 24th April 2015. If it were possible, we would have wished Deborah and Dickson to share a birthday since they are all April children but it was not likely. During that time, I was coordinating a research programme at Uganda Christian University (UCU) with 8 universities in Uganda and 5 Flemish universities in Belgium. The Belgian partners had wanted to orient me but the possibility of traveling to Belgium did not work out. Instead, they opted to do it here in Uganda (at UCU) because the same person to orient me was coming to Africa (DRC) and it was easier to make a 2-day stop over to train me and meet the UCU VC. Therefore, the date for her coming to Uganda and specifically, my orientation coincided with our delivery date. We talked about it...

By Dickson Tumuramye Many times, I take my children to a clinic, and I usually encourage them to explain their pain to a medical doctor/officer and not me. I do this because I know I will tell a doctor what they already told me, which is already a reported speech. I am sure they can give the same information to the doctor and exactly touch where they feel the pain, as the doctor can observe their gestures and any other non-verbal expression as well as interpret their feelings.  Sometimes they feel I should speak on their behalf. However, I insist that they are the ones sick and know where it hurts most better than I do. Yes, I will also add my voice to what they tell the doctor, where necessary, after expressing themselves. I have found it helpful over time. In addition, after the doctor has diagnosed and prescribed medications, and whoever offers a service, I make sure we don't leave without expressing their appreciation. They must know that every service deserves app...

By Dickson Tumuramye This is a month when our children will sit for end-of-term exams in primary and secondary schools. This is also happening in some higher learning institutions that are doing their end-of-semester examinations this month. Every examination season causes phobias for some students and this is not necessarily because they are not prepared for them. Phobia comes from many factors. These can include high expectations of a child's performance, inability to concentrate, difficulty settling into a school/class, harassment by teachers, fear of certain subjects, and paying too much attention to examination results. Some children are academically dull and lack the confidence to excel in academics. Others fear because they did not perform to their expectations in the previous exams and they are not sure how it will be this term/semester. In the past, others have experienced sickness during exams and have not been able to complete fees on time. Some children who get examopho...