Before a baby is born, the parents start preparing for its future. First, they start putting the funds aside for their school, college, marriage, etc. Then, they start making the environment "child friendly", which includes getting rid of the hazards and making sure the house is clean and dust-free.
Once the baby enters their world, they decide what's best for the baby and its future. They spend time "moulding" the baby and teaching good habits. I have been through this wheel twice. Sometimes I wish there was a universal "101 Parenting Guide" that tells the new parents about do's and don't about parenting.
Some of us try to replicate our parent's parenting style, whereas some still carry their childhood trauma and try to become better parents than their own.
All parents intend to make sure that their kid is ahead in the race to 'succeed" in life, and the preparation for this race starts from their first day on this planet.
Education, Experience and Responsibilities have drifted us as parents away from our basic human instincts. Yet, when we look at our children, these instincts are the strongest at their birth. However, we as parents tell them what's right and wrong and somehow manage to influence their instincts with our own.
While we parents are busy teaching basic etiquette, social cues, and "A for Apple, B for Ball, " our kids are also teaching us specific life lessons.
Here's what I've learnt from my kids
1) Forgive and Forget
As I said, I wish there was a parenting guide that would tell us how to act and react in certain situations. I have had my share of ugly moments with my kids where I was unreasonable, rude, and arrogant, among other things. However, my reaction was primarily impulsive and involved making the kids cry in those moments.
In hindsight, I feel so guilty about these things, and I promised myself that I would be a better parent. But there is a vital life lesson that I learned from here.
My children never held my actions against me. On the contrary, they always forgave me after some pacification and forgot about the whole incident the next moment. They would always look at me with the biggest smile. They follow this "forgive and forget" rule with everyone around them.
As adults, if we practice the "forgive and forget" lesson, the world will be a lot more peaceful place to live in and raise our kids in.
2) Use all your energy to get what you want
One thing you'd always hear when there is a wailing baby is, "Just give the baby whatever it wants".
It always amazes me how the kids exactly know what they want, when they are hungry, when they want to sleep, and they have a way to communicate it.
When they want something, they will put all their energy into getting it and won't stop until they do.
I've realised that the universe works in this way, if we know what we want and use all our energy, we force the universe to give it to us. There is no stopping until you get what you want.
3) All are Equal
Kids never see the gender, caste, religion, colours or status of anyone before they choose to let their guards down with them.
Every other day, my daughter makes a new friend. Sometimes it is a 25-year-old girl, sometimes it's an 80-year-old man, and sometimes a six-month-old baby. But, once she overcomes her initial hesitation, she will ask them everything about themselves, tell them about hers and comes back to tell me that she's made a new friend.
Of course, it is a nasty world out there, but what I am trying to say is that we are programmed to make connections and connect with other humans irrespective of their gender, colour, or religion.
There are so many small things that we can learn from our kids, and in return, we can teach them to be better humans first, over and above everything else.
Leave a comment to tell me what you think about this post. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.
Very observant indeed . I hope we also stick and keep reminding ourselves of these lessons