My hats off to the lady in the pictures below, making him stand on the street with a sign that reads "I steal, I want to go to jail like my daddy". I love this woman, she is now my new best friend. I thought I was the only crazy one in this country punishing my kids the Liberian way. Keep up the good job dear.

These are some of the things I went through with my kids and this is how I handled the situations. For all you so-called perfect Liberian parents out there that thinks these acts are child abusing, good luck on raising your children in America!

Things I did to keep them straight:

1. Hitting your parents: When my oldest son was four years old going to preschool, he noticed some of his classmates (whites) hitting on their parents and the stupid parents took the hits and did nothing in return and give their children what they wanted. He thought he try it with me, well, the child behind is still hurting from the result. I caught his hand coming my way and beat that butt so well; he couldn’t wait to tell his younger brother “never try hitting mommy, the woman will do a Mike Tyson on you”.

2. The hanging pants: I hate to see boy’s pants hanging down their knees, they can’t even walk right. I told my boys this was not an option for them. Because I am one of those parents that show up unannounced at school whenever I feel like it, one day I did a “pop-up” visits as the schools call it. I got there right around lunch time only to see my son pants hanging to his knee; he would pulled them down when he left the house. I simply asked him for my pants, that right, it mind, I bought it. I feel if you want to show your underwear, while bother wearing pants. Spending the rest of the day in your boxer and having your friends teased you all day works wonders; their pants are always up and belted.

3. Ops, I forgot: This phase is a punishment to parents for having sex I think; it drives me so crazy I had to get even. Where is your book-bag, ops, I forgot, did you do the dishes, ops, I forgot and so on. One Saturday morning I decided its time to show these nuts what we parents go through, we switched rolls. They were the parents and I was the child. I drove them insane to the point they begged to switch back by 3pm. I forgot to do the dishes so they had to do it when we switched back. I forgot to clean my room, again same thing; I forgot to cook, so they had to cook or order in to feed me. I forgot everything that day, best day I ever had at home with my kids.

4. Making fun of others: We had a very over weight female neighbor living right across the ally way from us, my boys rooms were facing her room, why she kept her window curtain open I will never understand. Each morning when they were getting ready for school, they were always laughing, calling her all kinds of funny names. One day I decided to see what the fun was all about; they were taking bets and making fun of how long it will take for her to get her shoes on or how long it will take for her to put on her underwear. Well, I decided two can play this game, I marched their butts right over to her house and told her that my boys always saw her fighting to get her trash out and wanted to help her for a month; now what she didn’t know they also had to tell her how pretty she looks in whatever outfits she was wearing each morning on her way to her car for a month as well. Few weeks of their friends teasing them for been in love with a fat lady, the laughing stop.

5. Wasting food: My kids wasted food so much that I thought I should just dump the food into the trash as soon as I get them home and bypass their stomach, its going to end there anyway so why bother to cook it first. One day, I really needed to teach these yahoos a lesson. I called a friend of mind that I used to volunteer with at the food shelter on weekends and told her what I had in mind for my kids that Saturday. She did not want to do what I had planned but you know me, stubborn is my first name, she agreed and gives in. I told the kids we were eating out, they were so happy I heard them jumping up and down. From working at the food shelter, I knew around what time they ran out of food for the day, so I packed those yahoos in the car and headed for the shelter. I circled around few times pretending to be looking for a good parking space until I saw my friends signal, I told the kids to get out and get in line, they were shocked, why are we eating here? “Well sweetheart, since you all wasted most of the food before I can get my paycheck, we ran out of food and I am not getting pay until next Friday, so this will have to do”. Get in line; I will be there as soon as I park the car. I witness those sad faces coming back to the car; I asked what happened like I had no idea, “they ran out of food mom what are we going to do, one said; does that mean we are not eating” said the other, “I guess so honey, we can go home and cook us some noodles for lunch, ok?” They were quieted all the way home, NOT ME, I took this opportunity to remind them of all the times they wasted my food and if they didn’t we would have a house full of food to eat today; how those food could have been sent to Africa to feed the hungry children. These days they think, smell and taste before wasting anything.

Lying to your face: I handled this the same way the lady is handling her son for stealing; he had to wear a sign around his neck that read: “I am a liar, I liar to my parents each time I open my mouth”; parents remember to get the school permission first, it works.

Acting up in school: We all know what happen to you in Liberia if you do this? You come close to getting kill by the teachers and your parents and sometimes even the neighbors. In America, they call the parents. As for me, the schools don’t like calling me much, I can’t imaging why, maybe because I grade them as much as I grade my kids and I sent their grades to the county board quarterly meeting; the less call to Mrs. Williams the better for them they think. But when they do call, I usually showed up. I was called to the school one day because one of my nuts decided to give a girl a hug during lunch time. One of the County Schools policies is no touching each other on school grounds. I got to the office, saw my son sitting there smiling as if he was having a cigarette break, which usually change my mood towards the negative side. I got the full story and asked the principal can I borrowed one of his chairs, he told me he did not think that was a good idea, I promise him I will not hit him with it but needed it for me. I needed the chair because my son is over six feet tall and I am barely five feet, I stood in the chair for height, collared the mutt and had him repeat the school policy for all to hear over the intercom. He also had to apology to the girl for touching her even though he was trying to calm her down when he hugged her. My husband at that time thought I was too hard on him, saying he did the right thing, of course he did but my point was policy is policy, take her to the nurse or the office for help or do it off of school grounds.


Parents, parents, taking things away from kids these days do not work. All their friends have the same thing so you are wasting your time, get even! We need to help each other out with our children. I was blessed to have raised my two boys, two sisters, one brother, one of my friend’s son and now my daughter, this my people should explain my craziness but I can tell you Its hard work, you have to be just as crazy as they are to make it from day to day sometimes; I don’t beat much anymore because the kids are bigger and taller then I am and a lot of times I don’t have the energy but I do get even each and every time. Here are some rules to help you out:

1. Never promise your kids something and don’t follow through, if you promised to beat them do it, if you promise to take away things, do it, if you don’t keep your promise good or bad, they will play you like a piano and know you are not serious.

2. No matter how tired you are, don’t let them get away with anything even if you have to give them a promissory note for later; always try to be one step ahead of them, this is America, its takes less than 10 seconds for their lives to go from home to jail.

3. Division works, if you want to know the truth, split them up and ask the same questions but in a different way and catch the liar in the group.

4. Stick together as parents, when one says no, no should be it, do not go behind the other parent back and say yes, this will tell your kids you two have no ideas what you are doing and the two of you will be at it all the time.

5. Ask for advice, your parents, friends, people that have older children, church, school teachers someone will help you out, don’t do it on your own, you will died early and they will waste your hard earned insurance money.

6. Never lend your car to someone you give birth to, first they will not remember to put gas in, secondly, the seats will be put all the way back and the radio station in YOUR car will be changed. And don’t expect them to help you clean it without you telling them to.

7. If they turn you into a grandparent before they are old enough to have kids, hit them side the head each time the baby cries in your house, I do, and it’s a great stress reliever for me and I baby-sit on my terms, when I feel like it.

8. When their friends call or come knocking on your door and don’t say hello to you first, hang up the phone and/or slammed YOUR door in their friend’s faces, again, this is a good stress reliever for me and they usually get the message. If these behaviors continue, chastise your kids, after all, it’s their friends.

9. If they can not keep their room clean, or clean it when you tell them to, lock them out of it, it’s your house that means it your room that has your clothes and your toys in it. When they leave for college, turn it into a sewing room, you will love it and that will send a message to hurry up and get your own place. I love my sewing room.

10. If they decide to lock their room door to “your” house, you have two choices, take the door off or remove the lock completely; I usually remove the lock only because the door is too heavy for me to do along.

11. Go to their schools; find out what those yahoos are doing in there. Don’t argue with the teacher in front of the kids, they will play the two of you against each other.

12. Whatever curfew you set, keep it, don’t change it unless it’s very important towards YOUR benefit. Don’t stay out all night waiting for those yahoos to show up when they feel like it. To stop them from lying on when they came in, put a wind charm over your door. I love wind charms, had one at every home I have lived in. My kids think I collect wind charms for fun, ye right; as soon as the door’s open, you’ll know the mutt is in the house because wind charm will ring. Punish them for keeping you up all night.

13. If they threaten to call the cops on you, let them, do what I did recently with my daughter, beat them right before the cops and tell the cops why you are doing it, if they don’t agree with you, tell them to take the little monster with them and no they can not bring her back until she is 18 and out of high school; the cops usually thanked you and leave.

14. This is my favorite one. They don’t want to wear what you bought them because it’s not expensive enough, who money is it, mind or there’s? Besides, I think I should be paid for wearing designer clothing, why should I walk around wearing someone else’s name on my clothes? If you want to wear your name, let me know and I will sew it on your Wal-mart shirt for you, it’s that simple. You don’t want it, get a job and buy your own until then pick those lips off the floor and move on.

15. You don’t want to eat it because it smell or it taste weird or its too hot, who told these yahoos we are their personal chief anyway, like my grandparents used to say, “you don’t want it, you must not be hungry but until you eat what is in front of you, you eat nothing else”. Same way in my house; these days everybody knows how to cook and fix sandwiches in my home.

16. Don’t want to read daily? As if after high school they wouldn’t have to read any more. No reading no TV, no reading no outside, no reading no friends over or you leaving. Best way to get them to do their reading daily without going through wwIII with them, limit the TV channels to CNN and the weather, this works. The TV in our family room has only CNN and the weather channels. Also, hide the remote control, they are lazy people, they will not want to get up and change channels. If they told you they are done reading, go to the last two pages of the book and scan it and ask them few questions, if they can not answer it, give them another book to read, for me I usually find a bigger book then the one before. All the kids I brought up were or are on the honor roll at their schools because to me reading is the same as food, you need it to live in this world. I may not be the best at it, but I make sure they are.

We need to stick together as parents and keep our old fashion way of training alive. My kids can tell you about pumping tires, standing with one foot up, pinning the ground, you name it. When my family saw how I treated my kids, I got all kinds of remarks from them. One of them even told me she will never allow her son to visit me because he might have mental problem later on in life; well, that son is now in jail serving 7 to 15 years for armed robbery; my kids on the other hand know better then to call me from any jail. In fact they will tell you, they preferred the cops keep them then to call me!

To the lady in the picture below, if anyone give you a hard time, please let me handle them for you!

Everyone have a blessed day!