- English translation
Bringing up someone else's child is like building a house on land that isn't yours.
- Literal wording
O you who raise one other than your own child, O you who build on what is not your property.
- Meaning and lesson
The proverb pairs two futile investments: devoting yourself to raising a child who is not yours, and putting up a building on ground you do not own. In both cases the labor is real, but the final reward belongs to someone else.
It works as a sober warning about misplaced effort. Whatever you nurture or construct on another's behalf ends up in other hands, so the one who invested should not expect to keep what the work produces. It calls the effort unrewarded, not raising another's child morally wrong.
- When it is used
Use it to caution someone pouring care, money, or years into a child or property that belongs to another, warning that the results will end up in other hands. Apply it carefully: it can sound dismissive of foster parents, step-parents, or guardians where such relationships are personal or sensitive.
- Register
- Colloquial Arabic
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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