About letting the child be…

After all the pledges that I will never force my child to do something, I will never run a rat race, I will let her do what she wants to do, blah, blah, blah…I committed the same mistake of trying to mould my daughter into my die. As a concerned mother, it became my innocent wish that she puts 100% effort in whatever she does and the result should be acceptable (if not excellent). So knowingly, unknowingly, situation became like a pressure cooker. Shouts, scolds, tears…

One such thorn in my flesh was my daughter’s colouring abilities. Since her kindergarten, I couldn't just teach her to colour within the boundaries. Every time she started colouring, her creative fantasies took her well out of the given lines, making the whole sketch rather.... sketchy! 

It didn’t stop here. Her choice of colours also baffled me. One arm of doll could take three, four or as many colours as she fancied, with lot of browns, blacks and greys thrown in. I admit it got me worried. I could feel a whole bunch of psychiatrists shouting in my ears about the implications of using unhappy colours by a child. The situation was alarming. In the end my daughter proved to be more persistent than I was. I finally shrugged it off. May be she is not cut for painting (and for singing, and for dancing, and for ……….). 

But as the nature has its own course, one day I saw my daughter colouring a flower with much precision. To my great surprise she was concerned about finer nuances of the shading….and it did come out well! ‘Wow! I never knew you could colour it so well’. As I uttered these words, the twinkle in her eyes was priceless, sense of achievement unparalleled!

Now, not only she tries her hand on colouring, but drawing it too. I have seen another change in her, she takes things more seriously than she used to do earlier (finally! without my persuasion). But only in the things she is interested in, she will not put the same effort in her Hindi assignment (sigh!), which I want her to do.

Oops! I am doing it again……..


Pictures: my daughter's colour books