Still others heaped blame on parents for not following cultural protocols in advising and teaching children about sexual behaviour. This school of thought pontificated that when a girl child starts menstruating her hormones start raging, sending massive sexual urges and it was specifically at such a time when the mother and aunts are critically needed to teach and advise her about sex and relationships. Respondents sharing this idea, contended that mothers and aunts had not failed in this respect, but had effectively abdicated this responsibility, which the media and peers had taken over very quickly. Thus, with aunts not being consulted and parents being complicit to the moral decay, there were very few people left who could provide some sort of a moral compass for the children leading to their wayward behavior. Child marriages thus, became quite an expected consequence of the moral decadence. 3.2.6 Immaturity of the child brides According to respondents, girls were rushing into marriage without advice from parents or guardians; hence, they married too early whilst they were still immature and not yet ready for marriage. According to these respondents, young girls aged between thirteen and sixteen years were reportedly perceiving themselves as old enough and mature for marriage. One child bride explained her decision to get married: “I was young (16) and my father was able to take care of me, but at church an older man had told me he wanted to marry me. He was my father’s friend. My father was willing to pay for me to go to school but I had other ideas so I insisted on getting married to the older man.” Thus, it is seen here that some child brides exercised their free will and rushed into marriage with older men, without any pressure from parents, financial or otherwise. But this was not without problems. When married, child brides were often blamed for demonstrating an unawareness of their responsibilities as wives and mothers in charge of households by playing with other single teenagers. Other child brides would openly indulge in typical “childish, single, girlish” play outside the house in the mothers-in-law’s presence. Respondents accused some child brides of being spoilt, unable to carry out household chores since they grew up in families where workers and servants did all the work for them. The child brides’ immaturity was allegedly pointed out as one major reason for their willingness to get into marriage early; hence, girls born around 1998who are below the legal age of marriage- were now getting married. 3.2.7 Coercion by parents Some older female respondents vehemently argued that child marriages were caused by parents who forced young children into arranged marriages. According to the older respondents, some materialistic parents, especially mothers, would systematically coerce their daughters into marrying local businessmen in the hope that their financial problems would be addressed by these marriages. The respondents in the FGDs said it was common to hear a mother declare “…it will be better if my daughter is taken by a businessman instead of any other person because he is rich…” despite the fact that the businessman would be much older than their daughter. This violated the cultural norms where every parent is expected to desire for their child to have a good life. The extent of coercion by parents was reportedly rampant that some Focus Group Discussants were left to grumble, “Even prostitutes tell their children not to be prostitutes”. According to these respondents it was common for mothers to intimidate their daughters into marrying older men simply because of their supposed riches. According to this line of thought, a 15