We give birth to our children and are their first teachers. Right from teaching how to latch to every big and small thing about life we impart knowledge to them, teach them.
But there are a lot of things that our kids teach us too! Few things which we have forgotten as we have grown older and lost our innocence in the grind of life, things that we have unlearned thanks to the lessons that life has taught us.
Here are ten things that my kids have taught me and I truly wish I can imbibe and implement them:
1. Love unconditionally. Have you ever seen kids “not loving” their parents simply because something didn’t go down well with them or was not up to their expectations. They might be angry for some time but never start hating you or despising you. No matter what they always love their parents without any conditions attached. Wish we could retain this value even as adults!
2. Forget and forgive. There have been days when I have been extremely angry and annoyed with my kids, have yelled at them, said them things that I shouldn’t have. All moms have such days! But that same child will come and hug you when you are crying because you yelled at them. They will give you a kiss, wipe your tears, and hug you. They don’t even remember that you had scolded them so bad. Can adults do that this easily?
3. Hold no grudges. Again, its the same as forgive and forget policy. Kids don’t hold grudges like the adults do. They are innocent creatures who have a pure heart. This purity starts vanishing as we start getting older.
4. Question freely. How many times has it happened that your kid has come up to and asked a question and totally stumped you? They question the parents when least expected or a question that might throw the parents off-guard. Their curious minds want to know answers and they come to the parents and ask them freely without thinking twice. Somewhere this curiosity and free questioning is curbed by the parents where the parents tell the kids “not to ask certain questions or that they are asking embarrassing questions”! As we grow up, we stop questioning like the kids do.
5. Fall, laugh, and get going. Kids fall so many times while playing, running around, fooling around. They fall, might cry for some time, but again gather themselves and get going again! They don’t keep on brooding about why they fell, where they hurt, or keep blaming anyone for their fall. This is a thing that adults need to re-learn from their children.
6. Dream without thinking about power, position, or money. All kids at one point in their life want to become sweeper, engine driver, maid, cobbler, and such. But once they grow up the same kids would never wish to be the same. Why? Simply because younger kids dream of doing something without giving any importance to power, position, money, or social status. How innocent and pure..right?
7. Be carefree and uninhibited. Kids laugh, cry, fight, play without any inhibitions. They don’t bother or worry about “log kya kahenge”? Rings a bell?
8. Make and accept friends without any bias. Every child loves and accepts their friends without bothering about his religion, caste, food choices, and looks. I have seen my son who is a hardcore non-vegetarian sharing a table with his Jain friend while eating or respecting if the Jain friend feels uncomfortable sharing the table. No questions asked, no being judgmental. A first ranker will be friend with a academically weak student. Wish the world was like these kids, then we would have had no hatred anywhere.
9. Trust everyone easily. The kids are innocent and hence trust everyone easily. But the adults are the ones who are responsible for making the children not trust people. What do we teach kids; don’t accept food from anyone, don’t talk to any stranger and such. But such is the world that we cannot trust our kids with anyone.
10. Be happy in any situation. This is a big learning from the kids. They are happy in any situation. They seldom compare their life to others like the grown-ups too. We are unhappy even if we have many things in life as we start comparing our life to others.
Lets learn few things from our kids again and try to be happy and content!
Life and its different shades 