Have you heard about adults grumbling that they do not feel the same joy and sense of wonder which they felt in their childhood days? The irony is that children like adult life whereas adults crave for their lost childhood years. Some years ago, there was a mobile advertisement showing that there is a child in everybody. Yes it is true, everybody likes their childhood days. One of my aunt, who is a doctor in US, wrote a letter to my grandfather saying that her childhood days were the golden days of her life. The point is, why can’t we keep the child in us alive even as adults?
The truth is, when adults become parents, they relive their childhood. When you hold the tender baby in your hands, the delicate being, you feel a moment of joy and pride. Your heart is overwhelmed with emotion. The baby is your creation; it is a product of your internal traits and your physical features. In short, it is a part of you. The only difference is that it faces a newer world, the next generation world. A fresh kind of challenge emerges with every step of its growth. Parents are lucky enough to see their children respond to situations and grow emotionally and spiritually.
Raising a baby is no easy task. As an infant, the child is vulnerable and very emotional. Great care has to be taken while nurturing the baby. Right from keeping the environment clean and disinfected to adhere to the child’s needs, raising a child is no child’s play. Travelling with infants is yet a more tedious and tricky task. As a child slowly grows, his/her mother feels a plethora of emotions. To watch the baby take its first step, utter the first word, learn to interact and mingle with other people, learns to make friends, turn the pages of their books makes a mother proud. When her child comes to her with a trophy and a medal, her joy knows no bounds. Parents often re-live their childhood through their children.
As a child enters her teens, parents become cautious and often on guard as this is the time for the vulnerable soul to go astray and invite a baggage of emotional suffering. Parents often become friends of their children through the journey of their teenage years into adulthood. The feeling deepens, is firmly anchored.
However, many times parents become very possessive about their kids and have huge expectations from them. This is harmful for the kids. Kids often feel pressurised due to this and it often results in their low self confidence when they are unable to meet these demands. This is unfair on the kids. Parents must not keep undue expectation from their kids but just enjoy their each achievement no matter how little it may seem and celebrate their childhood.
