forward to the next one. If this tendency continues, I think
it will not be very good for her. We are feeding a fast
culture: if you don’t like this, you can fast-forward. You
can fast-forward a video, but you cannot fast-forward your
life. So this is a valuable lesson that I have learned by
observing my grandchild.
At a whim, at a snap, we are ready to satisfy every little
gesture and thing they demand. One toy is not enough.
The whole room is full of them. There are clothes galore.
“You don’t like this fruit?” You offer another fruit. Many
choices are offered at a very early age instead of helping
a child to make do with things, and training a child to be
happy with what little is there. I think that will prepare
them mentally and emotionally to face life in a real sense.
Even though you may have plenty of things in life, and
you may not have to worry about curtailment or restricted
offerings, what happens to the mind of a child? Expectation
increases manifoldly. Later on, one car won’t be enough.
One house won’t be enough. One boat won’t be enough.
Psychologically, it is translated into demanding things at
all levels. We rob children of getting used to certain impulses,
certain stimuli.
Recently, while cutting the ribbon at a grand opening of
one meditation hall, I found that the scissors were not
working. They were quite blunt and I had to really pull
the ribbon to cut it. So I learnt that just as overused scissors
become blunt, our overused faculty of happiness and joy
makes that faculty dull and blunt. It requires sequentially
greater and greater impulses of happiness and joy to make
us happy. When such is the case, we are not using the
other side of the blade – sadness, pain, misery and
unhappiness. We try to avoid them; even a little bit of
inconvenience is avoided. So that part of the scissors
remains very sharp. The slightest inconvenience and our
balance is lost.So when we are raising children, we often don’t expose
them to the realities of life, trying to avoid even the slightest
inconvenience. Of course, as parents we love the fact that
our children don’t go through any inconvenience. There
is no need to create inconveniences knowingly, but when
they happen, it is good to let children face them. There
can be multiple situations: a child doesn’t want to eat a
certain food, or wear an item of clothing, or play with a
toy. Don’t try to circumvent those inconvenient moments.
Let children go through them, and let them learn from
them.Well, anyway, you are all very smart and very intelligent.
You may decide how to make each part of the blade or the
scissors sharp or dull – it depends on you. How will you
transfer your wisdom?So when we are raising children, we often don’t expose
them to the realities of life, trying to avoid even the slightest
inconvenience. Of course, as parents we love the fact that
our children don’t go through any inconvenience. There is
no need to create inconveniences knowingly, but when they
happen, it is good to let children face them.
FOCUS
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