Human Rights Day

Coming to a Thursday near you: Human Rights Day.

As you all know, the rights of the vulnerable amongst us, especially children, are highly prioritised. But did you know that there are the secret rights of a child too? Here are some of them but you could probably add several of your own:

• The right to refuse crusts. No child shall be required to eat crusts on sandwiches even if mom claims "all the goodness is in the crusts".

• The right to spill. Any milkshake bought at a restaurant will be served in a leaky/poorly balanced container, and shall be bumped by the elbow of the child into whichever lap can least afford to be turned milky pink.

• The right to un-pair shoes. The child shall at all times be required to lose one shoe, particularly one minute before mom or dad has to take said child to school. The child is also allowed to adopt an innocent, slightly confused, look when asked "where did you take them off?"

• The right to wrongful communication. That person you really don’t want to speak to on the phone? Your child has the right to press that number in your address book and force you to chat. 10 extra points if that person is only available on an international number.

• The right to get off scot-free. So your child has flushed the remote down the loo/set the compost heap on fire/destroyed your fine china swan/eaten your chocolate stash - unfortunately, when you are at your most livid, the child can, and will, defuse all anger by laughing/crying in an impossibly cute manner, making retribution seem unfair.

• The right to make bad jokes. You shall hereby laugh at that SAME knock-knock joke ten times in a row, and are banned from correcting any errors in the telling of said joke.

• The right to be hugged. Even if you suspect your child has just committed some heinous crime and is just sucking up by offering to "spontaneously" hug you, you will respond by returning said hug.

Because kids are kids, I know sometimes I get frustrated with mine for not having “common sense” (or, irrationally, behaving like adults). Really, they have the right to learn by making mistakes. Being difficult or messy or petulant or needy: Those are all just part of growing up - I guess that means I’m still growing up too.

Let’s celebrate the rights of our children to be children.

What’s missing from this list? Email us about rights you think every child should have, and you could win a R250 Kalahari.com voucher!