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Is parenting only about teaching the right things to a child? At times, it is the child who assumes the opposite role and becomes your guardian angel!
Children give life a new meaning, a statement which everyone is sure to agree on. The feeling is even more overwhelming when one become parents to a toddler or infant.
Seeing kids grow is an aspect of life that parents enjoy and I too have been able to experience the same. But the journey is not all green or colourful. It’s a messy, rough one wherein our own children become guardian angel and teach us the meaning of life.
Spending time with children has taught me, personally to grow once again but in a different way. This growth has been full of enjoyment, positivity, stress, and, yet a complete openness towards life. As both a parent and a person, I have learnt to value my beliefs, opinions and ethics and also be curious.
The children I raise are also my guardian angels in an intrinsic way. Unknowingly, they have taught me to let go of the competition. They have made me understand how to enjoy the flow of change in life instead of competing with it. Not everyone is a winner at life. Even then, every single person; a kid, parent, adult, toddler etc. has a story to tell and share to the world.
With time, us parents also become tired of everything, having experienced everything in their life from success to failure. But children are the ones who bring the newness to every single emotion at this time. They allow us to live life once again through their eyes and their emotions.
Despite all, it’s still hard to be a parent sometimes. I can feel myself burning hot in pain and anger or jumping in joy in the air and this happens as the emotions of my children swing from one end to another.
This is especially when kids make cute faces and cry like it is the end of the world over a candy. You feel like hugging the life out of them when you see them wiggle and weep over trivial things in life. It makes you realise that being a parent is no easy journey.
In contrast, as adults, however, we barely express ourselves even when we face major problems in life. But children can somehow spark changes there too. They have begun to teach me how to express myself freely.
In the current times, there is another concern and that is competition. There are many competitions for children across various fields. But with time, I have learnt not to pressurize and burden my children at all, especially in their tender ages. Childhood is something that never returns and us parents, get to live that childhood again through our child.
As a parent, all I try to do is to push them to be on the most righteous path possible and teach them to be unafraid of failure. They reciprocate by smiling even when they fail, knowing that they have my partner and me.
I see my children as the masters of their life and parents, their guiding, guarding, and lovely guardian angels in life. Parents are the first set of family and friends in a child’s life and support from family and friends is integral at any point in life, making competition trivial. I believe guidance and support are all that is needed and children will find their own path in time.
Image source: A still from Aatma
Exploring new ventures during the pandemic and mother of 5 yrs old son. read more...
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Why do parents avoid explaining the physical part of relationships to their children? The mindset is-'they will learn on their own like I learnt.'
Marriage. A word with conflicting sentiments. Love, exhilaration, fear, and adjustments were all deep sentiments that tingled in the pit of my stomach from time to time. However, I believe that the final decision must be taken solely by the two persons after the completion of courtship period (or whatever you call it).
My cousin got married in this lockdown. She was not very excited about the shrinking guest list. Though she was ecstatic she had me. More than the sisterhood bonding, we apportion a cognation of mentor-student. Moreover, I feel so protective towards her as she is introvert, shy, and timid. All I endeavoured and wanted her was her voice and a stand for herself.
It was her mehndi the day I reached. She rushed to hug me with those moist eyes. Fighting back my tears and holding her in my arms, my mind toggled between past and present. “I am so happy you made it di,” she said. It was the moment of mixed feelings, a reminder of the time when I was naïve to the change marriage brought into my life. I inhaled my lungs full of air in disbelief that the baby girl is getting married in two days. She blushed as others giggled and teased her asking her about the guy.
From the time one dancer went public about Pt Birju Maharaj through a series of stories on Instagram, the classic cycle of victim blaming started asserting itself- deny, disbelieve, discredit, disgrace.
Trigger warning: This has sexual abuse, victim blaming, and gaslighting, and may be triggering to survivors.
In light of the recent allegations of sexual misconduct by the legendary kathak maestro Pt. Birju Maharaj, a number of people are asking “why now?” Why is the person choosing to make the allegations public after his death when he is no longer around to defend himself? What is to be gained by sullying his reputation when he is no longer in the world? If these allegations were true, why didn’t we hear of it before?
In this thoughtful post the writer emphasizes the importance of telling positive things to children.
I have a very dear friend. He is 34 years now. We got talking about his relationships. There had been a series of tumultuous and heartbreaking relationships he had. He comes from a well-off family and he himself is doing well in life. But when it comes to relationships he could not figure out, why all of them fail so miserably. Then we went back, I checked the pattern of all his relationships since he was 15. Each woman he falls for leaves him and he always felt ‘not-good-enough’ for anyone of them. Also, because of his ongoing ‘not good enough’ feeling in life, he was the one who gave the most in his relationships. I could sense his deep rooted bitterness, which has crept in throughout these years.
I have another friend, who works in a very high paying job, comes from a good family, but she has this immense need to please people. She would buy us gifts for no reasons and would want to fit in,in every conversation.
There are so many things we learn from parents, sometimes even without actually being taught. Here is a personal list of 10 such things that this author makes.
Parent– this six-letter word has the whole world in it. All words fail to express gratitude for the things parents do for their children. Parents not only bring a new life into this world but nurture it. Parents try to mold their children in the best possible manner.
For every child, parents are the first heroes/role models. Children don’t realize the efforts that parents take in raising them because parents don’t show it. When we are small, we don’t remember what our parents have done for us. When we are teenagers, we feel that everything they say is wrong. And when we grow up we have our carriers and own lives to look forward to. In short, we rarely reflect on what our parents have done for us. It does not mean that we don’t love our parents. Deep down our minds, we know that our life would have been terrible without our parents. It’s just about giving them the long due consideration.