Unjust Inheritance

Should children be punished for the crimes of their parents? While I was thinking about this question, I remembered a family in my community whose parents are popularly known for their evil deeds, snatching people's lands, stealing, and all sorts of crimes you can think of.

Directly and indirectly, their children are already suffering from the crimes of their parents because the female ones are already in their menopause stage without getting married. Suitors usually bounce back upon enquiry, and as for their male children, other youths in our community avoid them like a plague. You see the society is already judging them due to their parents reputation, but I see this as a natural consequence and not punishment per se.

---

Sadly, children are born into a family, and regardless of their parents attitude, they can't change it. No one asked to be born into such a family, and whatever life throws at you, you just deal with it. Some children are born into families of millionaires, families with good financial investments here and there, and the children inherit this and live large; some are born into families with abject poverty, families without anyone ahead to guide them into making it in life, but some of them strive to be somebody out of nothing. It's just natural for us to find ourselves in a family, either for good, manageable, or bad, and whatever we see, we face the reality.

---

Now, isn't it unjust to punish someone for what they didn't do directly? Some crimes parents commit, they did it even before the children existed in our world. Some parents commit certain crimes out of greed and selfishness even without having the children in mind for taking any action. Imagine that I grow up to face the punishment of a crime I know nothing about. That's injustice and unfair treatment. I can be unlucky to have parents who are debtors, and facing the consequences of paying those debts may be annoying, but it is fair enough to pay if I have the money at least because my parents took up lots of responsibilities to nurture me into adulthood, but you see being punished for my parents sin? It's not justifiable.

If there's a way children will be guided not to follow the footsteps of their parents for those terrible kinds of parents, then it becomes fair enough rather than punishing children for a crime they have no idea about. Personally, as a parent, I am striving to keep upright so that I wouldn't be the reason my children will face humiliation or stigmatization in the society because even without punishment, such a negative lifestyle has a way of affecting children, negatively.

---

Wrapping up, as much as children can partake in the blessings of their parents, it is unfair to hold them accountable or punish them for the sins of their parents. Everyone should face their personal crime as it comes and not transfer it to their innocent children.

This is my response to the #HiveLearners community contest on the topic titled, Sins of the Father

Images were created using Meta AI