Stepping up for family safety and well-being.

Sometimes, people exhibit character contrary to what they are known for in order to achieve a certain goal. In most cases, the character ends up living with us, either for good or bad. We could experience a better result than what it used to be before the experience; however, it could also be a path to negativity in our lives.

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I have had my experience with acting out of character for the safety of family. Personally, I couldn't believe I could do that at ease and gradually adapt to the lifestyle for good. As much as the sudden change surprised my husband, it did surprise me even more. I am sure by now you will be wanting to know what it was that I did out of my normal me. I will let the cat out of the bag now; shall we...

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I received a variety of tips on how to create family bonding prior to my white wedding. Hubby and I attended a six-month premarital class where experienced couples in the church taught the upcoming couple ways to live happily at home, and one of them was creating family bonding, doing things together as a family like praying together, watching movies, hanging out as a family, and lots more. Out of all I learned from the marriage class, I found it difficult back then to join my husband in watching football at home. I will literally create my own movie session using my phone and in my room instead of staying with him and the kids in the living room to watch and cheer the winning team together.

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This lifestyle of mine pushed my husband to stop subscribing to our DStv package of the type that covers live football, and so whenever man city was playing, he would go out there to watch the game. He never wanted to go to the viewing center since he has his family to watch with, but due to my lack of interest in watching live football, he had no option but to cultivate the habit. It happened that the viewing center he uses is quite a rough one. Oh my goodness, the day I decided to go see what's happening there myself, I couldn't believe what my eyes saw. There are all manner of immoral acts going on there, and people get drunk and even fight. I was like, This man might get influenced by this unconducive environment if I don't act fast, haha

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This was the beginning of my acting out of character. I began to show interest in live football games. In fact, I used to be a Chelsea fan from afar, the blues, lolz , but for the sake of making my husband happy, I changed to his team, which is Man City. I would always keep in check to know when Man City is playing and show myself in the living room for the game. To say that he was surprised was an understatement. I didn't only start loving live matches, but I convinced my little boys to do so as well. You need to see the fun, the noise, and the jubilation when Man City wins. Gradually, I didn't know how I fell in love with live matches, and my husband loved that a lot. He stopped going out and staying late at the viewing center, and I didn't have to worry about his safety or well-being anymore.

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This activity also improved our family bonding for good. It was an act, out of character that ended up living with me, with a desirable result I never imagined.

This post is in response to the #HiveLearners community contest on the topic titled NOT LIKE ME.

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_{PS: The above image is mine, edited in Canva.}