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🇳🇬 Nigeria /Culture & Society

Allow your children to struggle, Nollywood actress Patience Ozokwor advises parents

From The Punch · () English

Summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Interview Named sources Context piece
  • Veteran Nollywood actress Patience Ozokwor has advised parents to let children face manageable struggles instead of shielding them from every hardship.
  • Ozokwor recalled selling fried buns and prepared chicken at movie locations and audition venues to pay for transportation while building her career.
  • She said such experiences taught her children responsibility and urged young people to work hard rather than rely solely on inherited wealth.

Patience Ozokwor, the veteran Nollywood actress known as Mama G, says parents can weaken their children by trying to spare them every hardship.

In an interview with Femi Bassey TV on YouTube, Ozokwor said children should not be forced to endure the same suffering their parents faced, but they should experience enough struggle to understand effort and responsibility. “I’m not saying allow them to suffer. What I’m saying is allow them to struggle. Go through the process.”

I’m not saying allow them to suffer. What I’m saying is allow them to struggle. Go through the process.

— Patience OzokworThe actress distinguished between exposing children to manageable challenges and allowing them to suffer.

Ozokwor recalled that her own path to success involved selling food at movie locations and audition venues. “There was a time I was frying buns. When I even came into the industry, I would prepare chicken, dress it well. I would prepare buns for anyone you want to buy.” She said she saved the money from those sales to cover her transportation costs.

There was a time I was frying buns. When I even came into the industry, I would prepare chicken, dress it well. I would prepare buns for anyone you want to buy.

— Patience OzokworOzokwor recalled selling food while trying to establish her acting career.

She also described working through difficult circumstances while raising her children and caring for her husband, who lived with diabetes and hypertension for years. Ozokwor said those experiences helped her children learn to take responsibility instead of depending entirely on what she had achieved. Three of her sons, she recalled, helped with construction work while they were university students.

The actress warned parents not to hand children family possessions without teaching them how to preserve and build on them. “I don’t say that your children will go through all the pains you went through, but let them go through little pains. Then they will know that it is not easy to make,” she said. She also encouraged young people to work hard and said she did not wait for her husband to provide everything she needed.

I don’t say that your children will go through all the pains you went through, but let them go through little pains. Then they will know that it is not easy to make.

— Patience OzokworShe explained why she believes children should experience limited hardship.
About this summary

Originally published by The Punch. Summarized and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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