A recent movie to have affected me personally was ‘Ferrari
ki Sawari’. It had a very strong and practical message. ‘Jo Dekhega wohi to
seekhega’. (The child will learn from whatever he sees his/her parents do). Children
learn and copy whatever their adults do. On retrospection of this thought, I realized
that it is so true.
I have a 3 year old daughter and she tries to ape both my
husband and me in most of her activities. Though it’s difficult and embarrassing
to admit, but both my husband and I have this irritating habit of nail biting.
And it has directly impacted our child. She can be seen with her fingers in her
mouth most of the time. We have practically tried everything to try and stop
her but none of our efforts have been successful. But now if I see her nail
biting, I don’t feel like scolding her or threatening her or punishing her.
Why? Because, she is not wrong. She is just trying to copy her parents. How
does a child, as small as my daughter, know what is right or wrong? She probably
thinks what her parents do is right. Why should we scold her? Instead, shouldn’t
we try to change ourselves? I often ask this question to myself, but the sad
part of the story is that it is also not easy to change habits easily as you
grow old. But in order to help my child overcome this bad habit, I have started
being more conscious about not biting my nails as much as I can. It is
instances like these which make me realize why they always say that children
are like wet clay. They can be moulded in any shape you want. And as a parent I
feel sad when my daughter picks up any of the so called bad habits from either
my husband or me or any other relative.
I am learning new things everyday as my daughter is
growing up. She has taught me to be more patient, more efficient and more
responsible. But most importantly, she is teaching me to be a better person.
How? If I have to teach her to be a good and sincere person, I have to first
learn to be a better person myself. Ultimately, she is going to learn things
from me (besides school of course). It is rightly said that parenthood is like
a second life. It is a whole new process of learning. And believe me; this
learning is more challenging than the subjects we all have studied in schools.
It is because this learning comes along with the added responsibility of teaching the
people (or children) you love the most in this world. Now imagine this; if we all try to
change ourselves even a little for the betterment of our own children, wouldn't this society be so much better to live in? I know I’m being too idealistic but
what’s the harm in trying to improve upon our bad habits for the sake of our
own children?
