Positive Parenting

By Dickson Tumuramye Recently, I heard a woman share an experience that left me thinking deeply about parenting perceptions. She had married into a family from a different culture. In her home, kneeling was compulsory as a sign of respect. However, when she got married, her new family told her not to worry because that was not part of their culture. Years later, as her daughters grew older, she began teaching them some of the customs she had learnt while growing up. Her reason was simple yet profound: “I do not know where my daughters will get married.” She realised that parenting was no longer about preparing children only for the family they were born into, but also for the families, communities and cultures they might one day join. Her story raises a question every parent should ask: Will my parenting still make sense twenty years from now? The world has changed Many of us are raising children the way we were raised. While our parents did their best, today's world is r...

25.07.2026 threatened to be a good day. For the better part of it, it was. My dear cousins, Davis and Annet, came by to see my ailing mother, and it was an emotive yet sweet time. If I have ever seen love personified, it was in the version shared between my mother and Aunt Hope, whom she fondly called Muramukazi—that is, sister-in-law. For more than ten years now, my mother's health has been a roller coaster. She always told Aunt Hope that she was at peace knowing that if she went to be with the Lord, Aunt Hope would be by my side—not only to comfort me, but also to eulogize her. That, however, was not God's script. A year ago, Aunt Hope departed from this world. Perhaps one day we will recover from that loss. For now, we continue to bandage the wounds it caused. Davis mentioned that I looked stressed. I could not deny it. I told him it was true; the past month had been one of the hardest seasons of my life. Every day felt like the ugly claws of death were menacingly taunting m...