I cried reading this. Very gutwrenching piece and it portrays a painful reality for many especially in Nigeria where we kinda believe child abuse isnt a thing. Lately i have been rethinking hitting kids at all even as a "moderate" form of discipline. Sigh. Is it not abuse when we hit kids? Why is it not okay to slap a woman but it is okay to slap an erring child? Because they are small and we are big? Because they dont know better and we want to correct them? This is the same logic abusive men have used for years as justification for beating their wives. Sigh. We hit them as kids when they piss us off then tell them not to use their fists when angry but to dialogue. It is just somehow. Its like showing them one thing and doing something else. Most times they end up being who you showed them and the cycle just continues again. Sigh. God help us o