My Dad Was A Beater Of Kids

yes...he was .

And it was not beating me and my siblings for fun.

He was disciplining us when we went astray.

Back then it felt like he went too far because he usually used his hard leather belt. 

Sometimes he would use the buckle side of the belt.

He would just order us to lie-down on the bed...while he flexed his muscle on our bear bodies.

I had lots of scars.

Scars from the different things he flogged me with.

Because of all this, we were scared of him.

Very scared.

Whenever he came back from work  around 4 p.m., and we heard the horn of his white colour 504 Peugeot , we would just scamper from the lawn in front of the house or the palour like we just saw a ghost.

This happened for a long time...till one day he noticed something.

He noticed that my neighbours kids were always running out to welcome their dad when they arrived from work. These kids would even collect the office bags from their parents and stroll happily into the house smiling ear to ear.

It was the right thing kids should do. But not in our case.

So one day, he came back from work , (I think we did not see him on time or something  ) and to his amazement , we all scampered into the house .

He was a bit shocked.

He walked briskly into the parlour , called us all out and asked .

“do I have a masquerade on my face”

We could not answer .

Who wanted to get beat up in a sweet sunny afternoon?

Not me.

Then he said.

“next time I come back home and you guys run into the house instead of coming to receive me , I will beat you guy up”