Tears rolled out from his eyes and he was looking worried. As his mother saw him, she thought he should get a chance to speak out his feelings. After making lots of effort he spoke with trembling voice “Dear Mom, I am sorry! I tried my best but could not make it happen, I could not win this time” and he was standing like a culprit to be punished.
Just at that moment his mother got an opportunity to take him out from all his worries, and of course, it was her turn, it was the turn of a mother, and yes she didn’t lose this chance. His mother looked at him lovingly and asked him, who told you that you didn’t win?
“The moment you participated you won over the fear of losing. The moment you participated you won over the self-developed image of “I can’t do it”. But my child, this time you did it, you won my heart and listen, your mom is proud of you. You are a champ because you didn’t give up.”
After listening to his mother, all his stress and worries slowly disappeared from his face and he was relaxed, he hugged his mom tightly and this time his mother couldn’t stop her tears of joy; that she succeeded in helping his child.
The pain of a child should be shared at the right moment, otherwise, in the fear of losing most of the time they start losing their innocence, childhood, hope and even humanity.
Today the life of a child keeps revolving like two sides of a coin with two extreme ends of a winner or a loser.
As the child grows his performance is calculated on various parameters like: who spoke first, who walked first, who ran first and many more things.
As they step in the age of elementary education, then the rate of performance is calculated again and the parents start attaching the performance of child with their social status, if a child does not behave as per their expectations then the parents feel humiliated. The race begins; whose child knows the multiplication table up to 20, who knows states & capital etc. etc. Parents forget to enjoy their innocence, their childhood, even children are not able to enjoy their golden moments of life…the period of stress free and joyful learning is lost in the stressful and painful environment of critical parenting.
An invisible victory stand is placed in front of them and they are asked to make a position on the top so that they can be tagged as a winner or else they will be tagged as a loser. And once again the life starts spinning, once they lose, they start blaming themselves, they start losing their confidence and sometimes they find it easier to end their life rather than facing the family and society.
But do we think that these tags are destroying the dreams of our young mind? The thought developed by the society is killing the humanity and innocence of our dear ones. They are overburdened by the expectations imposed by their parents/ society on their shoulders which, sometimes, goes beyond their capacity and they quit.
Being a parent it’s our duty to guide our dear ones that life is the best present given by the God to us, and they can’t lose it so easily, they can’t lose hope in themselves, there is much more to explore in life rather than this game of winning and losing. And we must explain them that losing is not about losing a medal or marks, rather, losing is the state of mind. In fact, you lose when you lose hope or lose positivity towards life. Nobody in this world can tag you a loser till the moment you lose hope in your life. They should be taught to accept failures and take it as an opportunity to learn and grow. And if you don’t lose hope you are a winner, just keep trying and give your best. We, the parents, should help them recognize their talent and show their skills at the right moment and at right place.
This is the duty of parents to train their child to live the life as a winner and help them to cope up with the stressful moments.
When the whole nation is celebrating the 74th Independence Day, let’s give our children little freedom to enjoy their life.
The bottom line is: KNOW YOUR CHILD, LOVE YOUR CHILD!
Kanu Priya an Art of Living volunteer, Managing SSRVM in Begusarai, an Educational project of Art of Living organization.
