I was sitting on the porch a little while ago and the mom of the little girl downstairs came to pick her up to take her home. I don’t know what was going on with her today but she raised all holy hell. Even her grandfather, for whom she can do no wrong raised his voice at her. Her mother kept telling her to stop it and eventually she just lost it and started spanking her while demanding that she stop crying.

It was really hard to listen to that shit. Naturally she started crying even harder. Her grandfather tried to gently intervene but the mom just put her in the car and sped away.

I’d say that most Caribbean parents discipline their children that way. My parents weren’t big on it thankfully. I think it’s a brutal way to discipline a child. And if I’m not allowed to do something to an adult I shouldn’t be allowed to do it to a child. But Trinidad is so fucking backward when it comes to things like that. 

Right now there’s a big debate going on about child marriages. While legally you can’t marry under the age of 18, with parental consent Muslim girls can marry as young as 12 and Hindus at 16. And it’s unbelievable to me how many people support this shit. But this is what happens when a society doesn’t view children as people who have rights of their own. It was only just a few years ago that they outlawed corporal punishment in schools. Imagine a teacher being allowed to beat your child. It’s unreal. But culture is hard to change. At least we are having the conversations that need to be had. Before it went unquestioned.