I Was There When The World Went Mad

The year is 1995.

I am in Primary one and the teacher is teaching us about the family. He says a family is made up of a father, a mother and their children.

He says also that there are two types of family, the nuclear family which is made up of both parents and their children and the extended family which consists of the parents, children, uncles, aunts, cousins and grandparents.

As he speaks, he points to the picture on the Social Studies textbook. It is the picture of a man and a woman holding two children, a boy and a girl.

He adds also that a female child is called a girl and a male child is called a boy, he says it is called Gender so I grow up knowing that my gender is female because I am a girl while my brothers are male because they are boys.

I passed from Primary one to Primary two and through Primary school to Secondary school, the definition of family never changed.

The year now is 2018.

I am filling a form online and when I get to the part for gender, the options are Male, Female, Other and Would rather not say.

As I tick female for me, I remember that times have changed a lot from 1995 when I was a child in Primary one to 2018 when I have become a Woman. 

I remember that the definition of family has changed to 'a set of parents and their children'.

This set may consist of a man and a woman, two men or two women.
Parents no longer have to be male and female and people of the same gender can now marry - not in my country though.

I remember also that people now have the right to choose their gender and so a child who's born female can get a surgery done to become a boy if she feels like it and vice versa.

I remember that some men once protested about their rights to have a monthly menstrual flow and to also be pregnant like women.

I remember that a group of men also once went to court to ask that the term 'pregnant women' be changed to 'pregnant people'.

Today there are no more moral absolutes as good and bad are now relative.

I remember also that the legal age to have sex in some countries is now 15 years as such if your child is raped at 15 and there's no proof that she was forced then you have no case in court as she is considered legally old enough to have sex with anybody - male or female.

I remember that some people are now working tirelessly to justify pedophilia - sex with a child and they say it's because some people are wired that way.

I wouldn't blame them though because another group is trying to justify sex with animals (bestiality) and they say this is because some people are attracted to horses, goats, chickens, dogs, snakes and even rats and it's the way they are wired.

I remember the story of young girl who gleefully took to social media to announce that she and her best friend are pregnant for the same man and she thinks this means their children will be best friends. 

Today, anything goes.

I remember that in a bid to practice freedom of choice we have put aside morality, forgetting that a society without rules guiding behaviour is a society headed for chaos and that true freedom lies in the ability to restrain oneself and exercise self control when necessary.

I remember that there seem to be more mentally ill persons walking the streets and even making policies so instead of seeking the help of Psychiatrists for their desires, they head to court to ask for the right to be whatever it is they want or feel like at that moment.

I remember as I complete my form that this is the world I will be bringing my children into and I remind myself that I have a lot of work to do.

This work begins with speaking into their lives and praying for what I want for them even while they are yet in my womb.

They will ask a lot of questions and I will tell them that once upon a time good and bad were not relative.

When they say people tell them they are being judgmental for upholding mommy's beliefs, I will remind them that it's okay to not go with popular opinion and that I was there when the world went mad.