By Jaclyn IWU
JUNE 22 2016-Working/Career women juggle so much to make a living. As they work, they care for husband, babies and house work as well. Don’t get me worng..these women are not complaining but nothing stops them for creating or requesting for some comfort to make their career easy. Every one wants some comfort at work including men as well because i can hear some men reading this saying…eeemmmm…who push you to work in the first place?
In some companies abroad, they put certain facilities for their workers and one of such facilities include a nursrey where nursing mothers who breast feed their babies can go at a certain point in time to feed and care for their babies. These companies are not doing this because they so much want to see their staff who just gave birth breast feed their babies or care so much for them. Most of them do not like the idea of a good staff being away on a maternity leave for months in the name of nursing a baby. This can create huge loss for their companies so their best option is to create a small outlet within the office environment where such mothers can quitely go and tend to their children while at work. Does this make sense to you at all? To me it does but i have been asking myself certain questions concerning this…if it can really work well in Nigeria. Can it? Now i am gonna hit on the Nigerian women and their sloppy hygiene attitude and bad ways of training their children. Have you been in a public transport with mothers with small children and watch how they totally neglect to monitor their children? Have you noticed how they allow their children climbing on top of other passengers and you wonder—what-the –heck is this? The mother is there watching the small kid misbehaving and doing nasty things inside the car but saying nothing to stop him/her. If one of the passengers happens to be a no-nonesense person like jaclyn who care less if you think i hate your child by pushing him/her away…when such passenger does, you frown thinking that the passenger hates your child. Meanwhile, you were there just watching the kid misbehaving huh? How about meeting such lousy mothers ….oh yea you are such a lousy mum because if you go out with small children knowing how they run around and do all kinds of bad things and you simply watch expecting others to caution your child for you, you are lousy…incompetent! Period! I was at the American embassy early last year and this couple came with their children and we all sat together waiting for our interview. The smallest of the children who looked like twins were running all over, touching everything in sight including electrical sockets that i was forced to shout at the mum to see what the kids were doing. Meanwhile all of us were there watching those kids running around disturbing everyone. What-the-hell? Nigerian mothers are so careless when they go out with their children and they feel the children can behave and do what ever they like and get away with it because they are children. Arrant nonesense…if you ask me!
I do not want to go to the area of the personal hygiene. Most mothers attitudes on this area is nauseating. Have you watched a nursing mother changing a diaper with poo-poo and scattering the whole thing everywhere not minding others with her? So my concern each time this great idea which i feel most Nigerian employers could implememnt to help their staff comes to my mind, i remember the careless and bad hygiene of most Nigerian mothers when they are nursing babies. You see, if these mothers actually keep good personal hygiene ….the same good hygiene will be implemented when they are nursing. Sadly Nigerians in general has very poor hygiene. God bless our former Minister of Health for his efforts during the Ebola outbreak last year. He really tried because going by the ugly poor….very poor hygiene of most Nigerians, it would have been a disaster with that ebola outbreak. Am focused on the women but i will not miss this horrible , terrible and highly contagious attitude of the men who sneeze, cough and blow their nose and next thing is to rub their palms together with the mucus as if they are rubbing in one nice hand lotion. Gosshhhhhhh!!!! What a repulsive attitude? I see them every where i go….men in suits…everywhere i go in Nigeria. The next moment, such a man will see someone and extend a hand for the person to shake huh? So repulsive!!!! Make no mistake such men shake hands a lot …oh sure they do!!! Anyway, next time you see me and you feel bad that i refuse to shake hands with you, remember this ….i do not shake hands and because of this…i carry my hygienic disinfectant wipes in my small handbag everywhere i go especially during my conferences and seminars/churches. If i somehow make the mistake of shaking too much, i will instantly use my wipe which comes very handy too.
So back to the women and their attitude, if companies open such facilities in their office complex, i bet you it will be a tug of war for the mothers and entire staff. Infact you could hardly breathe in there because some mothers will decide to extend their poor personal hygiene from home to the place and when others caution them, bitterness and rancour will start. You know how it is with women when you are correcting them. They know they are wrong but will hardly take corrections because most of them were brought up living like that. POOR HYGIENE is a canker worm that eats the health/minds of most Nigerians even when they are aware they have dirty habits. They ravel in such bad atttitude and will never want to change for good. If you talk too much they will give you a name like—oyibo ….as if keeping a personal hygiene is for another person’s good and not theirs.
Anyway, despite all these bad habits women exhibit which i have listed, i still think companies who have very valuable female staff and would not want them to spend up to 9months at home neglecting their work in the name of maternity leave, should do this but with strict hygiene rules for the mothers. They should have a team that will monitor how neat the mothers are alongside their babies and how they keep the place. If you just leave such a place un-monitored, you will be suprised one day visitors will come to your office and the odor of baby urine and poo-poo will chase them away. So any company creating such a noble gesture for female staff must insist on very high hygiene by the mothers. Let me know your thoughts on this! Conversation continues on Twitter- @jacquiworld
Jaclyn IWU is Life /Career/Business Coach. A Stress Management Expert &Conference Speaker. Media communications Consultant
BLOG: https://bluntjacqui.blogspot.com.ng
FACEBOOK: beautifulwoman.column
TWITTER: @Jacquiworld
