I was watching the new season of Blood and Water (long story). All I could think of was how self righteous we are as kids at the shortcomings of our parents. We judged the drunk uncle, the return soldier auntie and that one family member that caught a lick, moved away and went no contact with the whole family. Now it’s our turn to adult and we’re realising that the pudding is in the tasting.
Watching Blood and Water season 1 again and I'm just realizing how much of a Netflix high-school drama it also is and how Puleng is that self righteous main character who suffers from the main character syndrome. 😑😑😑
— original_terry (@original_terry1) September 27, 2021
Our parents were blessed that they didn’t have social media to document their stupid mistakes. That’s how they convinced us they were perfect until some loud mouthed family member outted them for one thing or another. As far as we knew, our parents were perfect, got good grades and never meddled with drugs. Our parents didn’t date and sleep around. No, they found each other on the first try.
One thing God taught me early on is that he would absolutely make an example out of me. Every time I judged someone, he would put me in that same exact situation. Almost to see if I would react differently. Nope! I reacted the very same way as the people I had been judging. Now I ride that verse hard that says “judge not lest ye be judged”. I ride it harder than an unrepentant sinner that doesn’t want to change their ways.
We don’t live in a bubble. People are always watching. My mom used to have so much tea on people’s parents and relatives. My personal mandate in life is that if you lie to your kids about who their dads are, I will go further than Tinashe Mugabe and tell them all about their paternal side. I’ll be in my house DM’ing them on some, “if you’re reading this, your father is not your father.” I’ll even go as far as attaching their biological dad’s pictures to make it even easier for them to grasp the shocking truth. That’s my lot in life.
Do I want my kids knowing about all my mishaps? Yes! They’ll even have this blog and my diaries to look back on. We always say “indlela ibuzwa kwabaphambili” (the directions can be only found from those ahead) but what happens when abaphambili are heavily embellishing the truth with PhotoShop and FaceTune? Maybe that’s why society is so broken now. It’s built on secrets and lies just because you wanted to save face in front of your kids. They need to know you struggled with alcohol and so did your father and your grandfather. You can’t fix what you don’t know.
If you don’t want your kids to lose respect for you. Maybe start making better choices and live an exemplary life. If you don’t wanna do the time, don’t do the crime. The internet never forgets. It’s even worse if the kids have to find out the truth on their own. And they will. It’s like how when I hide things from my niece and my nephew, I’ll probably forget where I hid it. And the people I hid it from will be the ones to find it first. The truth is a demanding, misbehaved mistress, it likes to be seen, felt, known.
Idk which set of kids are better investigators. Blood & Water kids or Stranger Things kids ..
— Joseph Matalon (@DiorDero) December 4, 2022
