DEAR MOTHER IN-LAW, KEEP YOUR PAWS TO YOURSELF

I have changed my mind. 

Previously I had said that if my mother in-law slapped me, I probably wouldn't retaliate the first time. But the second time, I'd make sure to give her both slaps back.

Now, if any mother in-law was foolish enough to slap me during an argument, I'd be returning the slap right away. Since now it is clear that she's acting from a place of "I'm sacred".

A nice resounding slap will uproot her from her delusion of "untouchability" and remind her that she's just a human being who made the choice to procreate. There is nothing special about her. 

While there are women who have had children because they genuinely wanted someone to love and nurture, it would seem that many other women had children simply to give themselves importance: importance that otherwise they couldn't have acquired on their own.

These women legit believed that becoming a mother would redeem their image and give them new life. Just like old things are passed away the moment they say "I do", even their wickedness and lack of humanity would also be erased the moment they successfully bring a baby into this world. 

"I am now a mother. I have changed." Indeed.

My grandmother have 8 children, but she never showed love to any of them. And if it hadn't been for my mother, today, they would all be wallowing in poverty. 

My mother had me, but if I hadn't had a strong sense of self, I'd have ended up paying for the damages that my mother suffered in the hands of her own mother. 

I had a friend whose mother treated like a peasant, while her own brother was being treated like a god.

Because motherhood has become an avenue for damaged women to be atrocious and inhumane without ever having to face criticism.

Thankfully I have seen women on my list who are loving mothers themselves and who have also had loving mothers agree that both the child who thinks that his mother's word is law and the mother who thinks that her word is law are both damaged and unhealthy human beings.

At least you cannot say that I'm talking from a place of partiality. Because I come from a family with a history of abuse. 

To me, motherhood will never ever make any woman sacred or more important than any other woman. 

"Congratulations on your successful delivery. Now, let's go back to relating with you like I do with any other person."

And if you woman want to be worshipped and adored because you managed to do something that even dogs and goats do without demanding for an altar to be built in their honour, then there is something wrong with you. And you won't find what you are looking for, here, in my domain.

"Mothers are sacred". I think of Gbemi, Alero, Sola, Kemi, Banke, Sandra, my mother, and a host of other terrible women who are mothers, and my blood freezes.

God forbid bad thing.