Spare The Rod; Spoil The Child
I told him I had to pay board to my parents
From the moment I first started working
He thought that appalling
He never paid his parents
They loved him he said
I told him mine loved me too
They were teaching me responsibility
He told me his parents bought him a car
For his sixteenth birthday
I told him I had to work to pay for mine
As my parents were teaching me the value of self-worth
And the most I had received as a material gift was a sewing machine
So I could make my own clothes to express my individuality
He called me dumb because I never had a higher education
I told him my father didn’t want my mind-set altered
That he wanted me to learn from my own intellect
My intuition as the Latin word intellect means
So as not to be brainwashed by the hypotheses of others
He continued to call me dumb
Until I took myself to University
Passing with a credit and distinction
Putting a halt to his weapon of destruction
Against my psychological outlook
By nipping his belittling words in the butt
I gained a higher education of not much use
He became perplexed as a spoilt man-child
I became happy as a free individual
His parents did him no great favours
As he had no discipline of his own
And no self-control for the addictions
He allowed himself over the years to fall victim to
And for the joys of his higher education
I had never known him to work
I had never been a kept woman
His father physically attacked him during his developing years
I later saw and heard him yelling as his mother
To the point of bringing her to tears
My father never believed in hitting children
Preferring to address his offspring’s psychological outlook
I never screamed at my mother
His parents had spared the rod; discipline, as the word means theologically
And they had spoilt; marred, the child’s character
Oh yes, my parents had given me many wonderful gifts
In the form of life lessons through tough love on how to be a survivor

As my parents truly loved me with great care and consideration
Nurturing me so that I could just be the best of my ability
Whilst he was lost
Amongst the spoils of growing up.
© C J Lewis, 2009