Ahh! How many times have you been told by your friends, family, colleagues & society that Beta, tumse na ho payega? In fact, our entire Indian society has been raised & is raising kids based on FEAR. We are SO doubtful of our capabilities, our uniqueness, our aspirations & all that comes with our ownself.
If you look closely, we want our kids to be rich & success. There is no scope of failure in life. We all dream of raising next Steve Job, Dr. Trehan, Kalpana Chawla but do you think EVERY child aspires to be them?? Will it be fair to say that we are putting our burden of lost dreams on their shoulders and giving birth to another vicious circle of disappointments?
My point is why can’t we be really happy with being average? Why can’t we really be happy with just been successful enough to create a fine work life balance & enjoy what life has to offer? There are so many such questions that need to asked & answered because I firmly feel that we are missing the real life in us.
The other day I was in random discussion with a relative wherein we were talking about savings for our kids. In fact, I discuss & stress over this point a lot while in discussion with my better half BUT then, while I was in middle of the discussion I realised that Why really save?? I mean are we raising inefficient set of kids who will never be able to make a living out of their own effort? If yes, then why are we even paying a bomb over education & being so stressful about the whole exam situation? Instead, we should rather let them chill now & later too but the FACT is that our brains have evolved to be greedy. We need money, power, acknowledgment to feel HAPPY. A random person who is able to create the balance between work & life appears to be a Zombie who is assumed as either too depressed about life or incapable & on the other hand, someone who is slogging day in, day out is looked upto as a star. I mean look the whole stats is wrong. The assumptions are wrong, the formula to measure success is wrong, completely WRONG!!
So back to the point of living in fear, I know it could be hard to make that change in our thinking but trust me it very much required. It’s required TODAY. It’s required NOW. Think of all the kids who prefer giving up their lives, giving up dreams just to meet the “so called” society standards. God has given us all ONE beautiful life. Let’s teach our kids to be a GOOD & RESPONSIBLE human first & the courage to pursue their dreams, whether that dream is to be a doctor, engineer, an artist or a Coocoo clock ;). Just teach them the values of life & we should be fine in full filling our duties of being a good parent!!
If you are already doing it, you are a Star, I aspire to become. 🙂
P.S: I too am trying hard to make that cautious effort & change the thinking I have been raised with. I do know that before my kids turn 16, I gotta embrace the change & be ready for them to reveal their dreams 😉
