Yes, and of a woman too. After spending almost 25 years (or more!) of
early life in all kinds of formal and informal education, just when we think
our learning phase is over, our children appear; make us learn (and unlearn) many
things all over again. The traits that
our teachers, parents and later our colleagues, bosses and even life partner tried
hard to inject into us…. but….where everyone else fails, a child succeeds. Here
are the changes having a child bring about in us:
Patience - With a child how many times you have to control
your temper; at tantrums for not giving into demand of nth number of toy, fuss over
not eating, not bathing, skirmishes in front of the guests. And exactly when
you tell somebody in a party that your child doesn’t eat much, your child puts
even the biggest glutton to shame. You are left with two options - either
suffer a nervous breakdown or devise plans to keep yourself cool. It is prudent
to go for the second choice, nervous breakdown doesn’t help any way!
Excellent listening skills: You have to listen to every
blabber with apt attention, everything that happened in school, all the rhymes
that teacher taught, her favourite episodes of TV programs, and…no, the child
will not stop. You are bombarded with
questions, the next when you answer the first. The questions keep popping up,
how well you try to answer them, leaving both of you whimpering in the end.
Eventually you learn to listen quietly.
Empathy: Finally, you
are taught to step into other person’s shoes. You have to listen to stories you
are least interested in. You have to watch cartoons when you want to watch your
favourite serial on star plus (even discuss it animatedly). Her assignments
become your own. You dine at your child’s favourite eating joint (We end up
going to Pizza Hut on every occasion!). Her friends become the most important
guest and her birthday the most important event in the house.
Master of all trades: Suddenly you start doing everything that
you never associated yourself with even remotely. Her school assignments stir
up an artist within you. You draw, paint, sing, dance, bake, cook, make paper
craft, try your hand at unimaginable things you hardly believe you knew. One
day, out of blue, you might have to play tennis and nurse your aching shoulder
for days together as after effect…
Being Angel : We put our angelic self on display. Honesty,
truth, keeping promises and all the niceties of life, our granny kept preaching
and we conveniently kept ignoring, acquire acute importance. We want to read
‘good’ books, use ‘nice’ language, view ‘good’ programs on TV (discovery,
animal kingdom, et al) and display only ‘good’ stuff on our shelves. Prayers
assume significance. We become particular about showing respect to elders (and
make sure children are watching us in action for the future benefit).
Who says being parents is easy?
Picture taken from: peaceful-parent.com
good one.I was wearing a smilie all the time while reading this.rightly said being parent is not easy at all.you have to learn new ways to handle your child evryday no matter how sucessfullyou are in outerworld.
ReplyDeleteyes, and all the parenting books you read provide no help as your kid doesn't seem to have read any!
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