If you want to understand how to become better allies to people with disabilities, then join us at Embracing All Abilities: Including People with Disabilities at Work.
We have always heard how daughters are caring and how sons are incapable of handling themselves or others. This will change your mind.
So, lately, I have been reading a lot about how only daughters are caring while sons are brash, and so on. I have always opposed this, whenever I come across anything of this kind. It seems that somehow, to glorify the daughters, sons are made the villains.
In the month of September, one evening I received a call from my mom that my father had suffered a heart attack. I immediately wanted to leave everything and go to my parents. As luck would have it, my husband had left for Delhi (I stay in Mumbai) that very day for official work.
We stay in a nuclear family and have no live-in maids. My teen son just asked me to go without worrying about anything. He was in class 10 and I was a little skeptical as I had never left my children alone. He only told me, “Just go and take care of your dad. I will manage everything. If you don’t give me responsibilities, I will never become responsible.”
Fortunately, my husband came back after winding up his work early the very next day. I went to my parents’ house and took care of them, without any worries.
As my husband told me, my son would wake up at 5:30 in the morning, prepare tiffin for him and his sister, wake up his sister, prepare breakfast for both and get ready and go to school. He would diligently keep an eye on whether the clothes were washed or not, utensils were kept in place or not, his sister and dad had eaten or not, and even helped his dad make dinner. Amidst all this, he would go for his tuitions and study, not bunking a single class. Of course, my husband and little daughter were darlings too. So, all-in-all there was no scenario of mess or “jala hua toast” in my absence.
Here I am emphasizing more on the SON part because if, as a parent, we raise our sons well it helps not just us, it helps them too. Now I know when, in the future, he will be on his own studying or working he will not have any difficulty doing household chores or cooking. His wife will never have to complain that “My husband doesn’t help me with anything.” Boys are not born brash or lazy, it’s the parents who make them that. Simply give them the responsibilities and trust them.
These seven days have not just made my son more responsible, they have made him extremely confident that he can manage and handle things all alone. I would also appreciate my husband and daughter for being so understanding. I didn’t have to worry about anything and just took care of my parents.
So, the next time anyone feels that only daughters are caring, please do read this. Also, those who have sons, please teach them everything. It will help you, as well as, them too.
Published here earlier.
Image source: pxhere
I am a travel expert by profession and an avid blogger by passion. Parenting and women's issues are something that are close to my heart and I blog a lot about them. read more...
Women's Web is an open platform that publishes a diversity of views, individual posts do not necessarily represent the platform's views and opinions at all times.
Stay updated with our Weekly Newsletter or Daily Summary - or both!
As parents, we put a piece of our hearts out into this world and into the custody of the teachers at school and tuition and can only hope and pray that they treat them well.
Trigger Warning: This speaks of physical and emotional violence by teachers, caste based abuse, and contains some graphic details, and may be triggering for survivors.
When I was in Grade 10, I flunked my first preliminary examination in Mathematics. My mother was in a panic. An aunt recommended the Maths classes conducted by the Maths sir she knew personally. It was a much sought-after class, one of those classes that you signed up for when you were in the ninth grade itself back then, all those decades ago. My aunt kindly requested him to take me on in the middle of the term, despite my marks in the subject, and he did so as a favour.
Math had always been a nightmare. In retrospect, I wonder why I was always so terrified of math. I’ve concluded it is because I am a head in the cloud person and the rigor of the step by step process in math made me lose track of what needed to be done before I was halfway through. In today’s world, I would have most probably been diagnosed as attention deficit. Back then we had no such definitions, no such categorisations. Back then we were just bright sparks or dim.
'Sania denied fairy-tale ending: suffers loss in AUS open final' says a news headline. Is this the best we can do? Is it a fitting tribute to one of the finest athletes we have in our country?
Sania Mirza bid an emotional and tearful farewell to her Grand Slam journey as a runner up in the mixed doubles final. Headlines read –
“Sania Mirza breaks down in tears while recalling glorious career after defeat in Grand Slam’
“Sania denied fairy-tale ending: suffers loss in AUS open final”
Please enter your email address