EDUCATION FOR THE GIRL CHILD AND PAYMENT FOR STAY HOME MUMS

I was born in a family of traditionalists where parents believed children, especially the girl child ,should be seen and not heard.They also belived that the girl child should not be educated.Although I was top of my primary schooling at 14,it was my brother ,an average student ,my parents chose to educate.They even sent him to boarding school for his secondary education.My father told me he had allowed me to complete primary schooling to ensure that Iwas literate enough to respond to a prospective husband's letter of proposal.
At 16, I got married to a 45 year old man ,an equally traditional man who enforced my parent's beliefs .He was a strict disciplinarian who would buy groceries and who would spend on himself.He would become violent if asked for anything for the children or myself.He said the food and accomodation he was providing were enough.As the years went by, I was so frustrated that most nights I cried myself to sleep .In her latter years, my mother looked up to me as her eldest daughter to look after her .I also became increasingly bitter at my parents who had long passed on,for the predicament I found myself in.By the time I was twenty-seven,and had given birth to my fourth child,I longed to be out of the house ,work to have some money of my own and to contribute to my growing family's needs.It occured to me, however,that I lacked the education and training to be employable.
It has taken me years to overcome deep depession .At 16 ,I was still a child who should not have got married but out playing with other children as well as concentrating on getting an education and profession.I am advocating for a law to compel husbands to give part of their earnings to their stay home house wives.