Social Grooming

The term “Social” relates to human society and its organization or the quality of people’s lives. It relates to human beings living in societies or something intended for communal activities. Apart from

the family which is the primary agent of socialization, the church, school and the community also play an important role in the socialization of a child. Social grooming of the girl child here is going to be looked at in terms of personal skills and home management.

Friendship:

Friendship is the state of being attached to one another by bounds of affection and respect. The child grows up in the family and starts appreciating relationships and friendships with other members of the community which could be the same or opposite sex. The benefits of friendships include companionship, caring, sharing, love, protection, supports, encouragement, mutual respect and so on.

Generally, there are some attributes that must be found in our lives which can really draw people to us in friendly relationships. Some of these attributes are highlighted by knight (1980) include: Helpfulness, Thoughtfulness, the other fellow’s point of view, cheerfulness, sympathy, interest, the other person’s feelings share a little, gave a little, willingness, the golden rule. Rather than frown at friendship in totality, the mother, father, counselor, or should be able to highlight the positive sides of friendship and show the girl child when to recognize when a friendship is becoming too close for comfort especially with the opposite sex. Staying alone with a friend of a opposite sex should be discourage as much as body contact like kissing, caressing, fondling or watching pornographic films. Pornographic or erotic stories and picture are worse than contaminated food. A healthy relationship should promote healthy competition among friends and always seek each other’s success. A female child should be encouraged to move with good and well-behaved girls. They should avoid bad companies and corruptible social gatherings because evil communication corrupts good manners.

Acquisition of Personal Skills:

The girl child should also be taught to exercise personal skills as already discussed, and protect her body from invasion of any form as much exercising full right over it. Such activities and behaviors as walking alone on lonely street or at night, wearing skimpy clothes to draw attention, visiting a friend of opposite sex alone or going out alone to a lonely place, expose a girl to sexual abuse. It is also advisable that girls protect themselves by locking the door of their room when they are sleeping or relaxing. To maintain integrity and prevent sexual abuse, girls must not be unduly close to the opposite sex, even close relatives.

Home Management:

Other important element of social grooming which date back to the history are the act of cooking, home keeping, dressing making and braiding of hair. It is not uncommon even with our level of civilization, husband to return the wife to her mother for tutelage if he fails to cook well. Of course, it is generally said that “the way of the man’s heart is through his stomach”

The concept of home keeping also involves the idea of budgeting and harnessing available resources for maximum benefits. Many marriages have broken up because of financial problems, poor personal hygiene and dirty home environment among others. She should keep herself neat and clean always. In like manner, she should keep her home scrubbed, clean and warmly attractive in the arrangement of furniture, flowers and other things.