“did you just think of Fitbit and step counting when you saw this heading?”

‘yes’?  I forgive you

‘no’? what image came to your mind then?

“I pictured a salsa dancer”

“well then, picture Samson walking from his den into his enemy’s lair”.

“Samson who?”

“Delilah’s Samson” 

“Except of course you probably are one of the few who have not heard of Samson and Delilah”. 

“Samson was one of those special breed kids. Children like Jacob & Esau, Jean-Baptiste and Jesus Christ. Their births characterized by drama and parents privileged to receive an API.  An Advance Passenger Information (API) is an enabler.  It equips you with requisite information about your passenger before they come aboard.  With that information, you are a step ahead and your job clear-cut”.

“Samson.  Another PK who strayed off. 

“is PK not a movie?” I see your brows furrow

“PK = Preacher’s Kid”

“Aha!  those ones always going astray” you smile conceitedly

“not always and not all of us”

“but you did stray?”

“yes, I did”  and I am done hanging my head down over it”

“I never get how despite the deposits invested in you PKs, you guys still manage to shake off the shackles and stray”

“leash”

“hun?”

“it is a leash, not a shackle.  And we only go as far as the leash extends” 

“meanwhile, I am talking Samson here, not PKs”

“sure, Samson the loverboy aka the strongest blind man” you chuckle smugly

“you sound just like everyone of them” 

“who?”

“self-acclaimed parenting experts who blame Mr and Mrs Manoah as failing in their parental obligations”

“ye all insist that if the couple had done their homework properly by acquainting younger Samson with the How-to-be-a-Nazirite 101 handbook, older Samson would not have strayed”

“I cringe each time I hear recriminatory talks like; 

“if Samson’s father had done this”

“if only his mother had taught him that”

“what did they do when their son strayed off to Philistine?”

“well, do you blame us? his parents had one assignment yet they failed

“that is the thing!  and do not tell me that I am shouting

All ye self-righteous experts who have never heard the term ‘The Prodigal parents’. Else you would grasp the fact that the way your child turns out has nothing to do with how much of the book you threw at them. 

I categorize you all into two strata; those who have never raised a child and those whom the gods cracked their palm kernels for”.

“gods kernels what?”

Chinua Achebe clearly warned “those whose palm kernels were cracked for them by a benevolent spirit should not forget to be humble”.  

“you see?  you do not even know that famous quote yet you think you got parenting and PKs figured out?”

“it probably means you do not even know the concept of prodigal parents?”

“prodigal son you mean?”

“no, prodigal parents”

“there is such a thing?”

“sure.  The parents of a prodigal”

“what about them?”

“go and consume all the resources on parents like Mr Manoah and his wife. How they grieve over and live with the pain & shame of that intractable child while also having to make the tough decision to either love the child unconditionally or throw the baby out with the bath water”.