I'm an Obama Mama

"I miss Saturday morning, rolling out of bed, not shaving, getting into my car with my girls, driving to the supermarket, squeezing the fruit, getting my car washed, taking walks". - Barak Obama

About her husband, Michelle Obama once said, "Barack didn't pledge riches, only that life would be interesting. On that promise, he's delivered."

President Obama is a tough dad. His daughters flew to North Carolina to hear their dad’s acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention. He began his speech by saying, “Malia and Sasha, you make me so proud. But don’t get any ideas — you’re still going to class tomorrow.”

In June 1989, Obama met Michelle Robinson when he was employed as a summer associate at the Chicago law firm of Sidley Austin. Assigned for three months as Obama's adviser at the firm, Robinson joined him at group social functions, but declined his initial requests to date. They began dating later that summer, became engaged in 1991, and were married on October 3, 1992.

"Obama" is the very first word in the English language to be a verb, adjective, noun, pronoun, adverb, interjection, superlative and 'pronad'. Pronad is a new category made specifically for the word "Obama" so its power can be fully realized, just kidding.

The family unit seems to be seriously under attack. Divorce rates are on an all time high, fathers and mothers splitting up and children constantly left in the line of fire bearing all the wounds of constant fights between their parents. While teaching in Dubai, my friend asked one of her 7 year old students why he was quiet and withdrawn that day. His words were " My daddy say my mummy is stupid, then he slap her". Identify the behaviour that your mother or father exhibited that you would not want to see emulated in your home. If you had Godly parents be thankful for that and try to become godly parents too.

I think the first step in building strong families is looking at our parents' marriages and identifying the things we would not want to see repeated. Many times men and women find themselves unconsciously in a position where they are acting out the same things they saw their parents do while they were growing up.

The next step would be to consciously tell yourself that you want your family to be a successful one. This conscious desire is essential because building a strong family does not happen by mistake. You must write the vision and make it plain! There is no room for an excursion in the dark. Commit yourself to this cause, this might require having a lot of rules but I choose to call them standards. The kids will complain that you are strict and tell you how their friends are allowed to do this and that but that's an opportunity to teach them the priceless lessons of individuality. Lead by example and do not follow trends. "A significant challenge is to live in the world but not be of the world.

Finally, families are ordained of God. Many people are choosing to postpone marriage until later in life, or not to marry at all. Through families come the greatest blessing in life - children. We need to be thankful for our families, the more thanks we give the more we protect them from the attacks of the enemy.

Ijeoma Olujekun