Schools are now closed and the children are on their second term holidays. As a result, the neighborhood has become one large playground as children of primary school age gang into noisy troupes; bouncing objects off the walls, running with rapid noisy stamping feet, shrieking endlessly at the top of their lungs, and raising general mayhem. The house girls are up to their gills, with house work in addition to the task of monitoring who is where, doing what and with whom. However, one little girl is missing out on all the fun.

When you walk into the apartment compound from outside, you most probably will see a child – about 3 years old – waving at you from the other side of a window pane. That is her bedroom, and she spends many hours looking out, hoping to see someone she can communicate with. Of all the children in the neighborhood, she is one of the most lively, and is extremely friendly, always practicing her English speaking skills with anyone passing by. And it breaks my heart to hear her muffled voice through the window, and I wonder what she feels when she sees all the other children playing happily just outside her bedroom.

The reason why the small girl has to look through the window is because she is not allowed to go outside and interact with the other children. Her mother is the strict kind. She even makes the house girl wear a full uniform, a concept that is quite alien in this part of the world. The woman does not interact much with the neighbors and you might only see her when she makes the short trip from her apartment to the car or from the car to the apartment.

The small girl reminds me of children that were not allowed to come out and play with us when we were growing up. We always wondered why they were locked in, and thought they were different in a way we could not see. All the same we would talk to them at every opportunity, and feel sorry that they could not come out and play. I always wonder how they turned out later in life.

I suppose the reason why a parent would want to lock up a child in the house is to protect the little boy or girl. But from what? Right now, the only thing I can see the little girl being protected from is the world. The world of other children, and grown ups, and dirt, and animals, and open space. She is being protected from a world that she will have to blend into sooner or later.

The world cannot be shut out by a simple door. Especially not in this age when it has conspired with technology to make sure that it gets us even in the innermost corner. In Kenya today, with the parents away at work, the house girls busy with chores, there is only the TV to baby-sit children. But have you seen how violent the shows, how dirty the language, and how sexual the contents have become? And remember, it is just a matter of time before anyone – including kids – can access full internet on cheap portable devices. What then?

You must have seen adults and children jostle for positions in front of the TV to watch WWF wrestling – men using brute strength to bash one another on the head using steel chairs. Out of this scenario, I suppose what should concern anyone more is the joy that adults seem to derive from violent shows, vulgar language and obscene images on TV, as the children witness this glee and absorb all the behaviors like a sponge. If we don’t change our attitude towards violence on TV, how can we then be able to convince children that violence against another is wrong, yet they witness us enjoy watching it so much?

The fact is that parents should be concerned with protecting the children from that which is already inside the house, as much as that which is outside. That which is inside the house includes adults.

It might almost seem futile when we think about the difficulties that face us in raising children in the proper way. But over the ages, a mother’s Love or a father’s guidance or even any concerned adult’s positive mentorship have never failed to work miracles on growing children regardless of how precarious the situation was. These are still tools that we possess. Otherwise, forcefully keeping a child in the house is tantamount to closing the doors and windows to keep out odor, only to realize that the skunk is hiding under the bed, and the foul smell is coming from inside the house.