Recently I was at a marriage
reception and there was this orchestra performing at one end of the hall. And
there was a little kid, not more than 3 on the stage who danced to their songs
by jumping and throwing hands all over the place. It was adorable and everyone
seemed to be enjoying the kid’s antics. A little later the kid's mom scooped
him away from the stage and walked away to the buffet service. Then came another
mom with her daughter; she dropped her daughter on stage and started showing
some bizarre actions with her hands. Only later I realized that she was asking
her daughter to dance and the kid seemed to repeat what the mother did and kept
doing it until her mother was happy. The mother then clapped her hands and then
took the daughter with her and was soon lost in the crowd. Watching the other
kid turn some heads she wished her kid too got an audience. It was amusing that
mom's envy other kids being in the limelight and expect their kids to do the
same. This couldn't be cited as a mistake as though when the kids are too young
to decide what’s good for them. But once kids grow up parents have to be less
demanding and more liberal and supportive. I had a similar experience while I
was around 8 yrs old, my mom and neighboring aunts decided to send their kids
for music classes. It didn't take more than 3 weeks for my parents to learn
that music was a farfetched dream for their son. My classes stopped
instantaneously and my parents weren’t ready to experiment me with anything
else. And like every other parent they sent me to tuitions though I never
actually needed them. I was pretty good in studying but they just believed the
general notion about tuitions, "if your kid failed in exams he would pass
and if your kid scored 80s he would score centum". My parents dreamt of centum
and it never happened. I still scored in 80s and if at all I scored a 90 then
they would justify their act saying it happened coz of the tuition. I didn’t
want to give any honor to those idiots..!! All they did was asking me to do homework
and study for tests which I could very well do at home.
Parents need to learn that kids
need more exposure other than just studies. If my parents had sent me to guitar
classes or table-tennis coaching it would have served as an add-on in my
resume. Most of the schools now have all these things in their curriculum,
right from karate to horse-riding, you name it and they have it. Of course you
need a fortune to spend every year for this kinda schools. Education became a
business when they started calling it "Quality Education". And
quality comes at a price.
Parenting is a tough task and it
just gets tougher as kids grow. There must be a brief counseling on
"Parenting" for couples soon after marriage; it will definitely help, save
and change many lives.
