you learn from your child

A child is the father of a man. What a true statement. While you are bringing up your child you will understand this. How much they know and understand. It is surprising to note that how much the experience can teach you.

Narrating the experiences , we were going to a toy shop on saturday, after I returned from work around 5.00 pm. My wife had been telling me that he is not having enough milk and this will deprive him of physical strength. She was, that day , trying to give him cereal and he was refusing it. She tried for 90 minutes and having failed shifted this responsibility to me. I tried for 45 minutes and we were getting late to go. We presumed he was excited that he was going to the toy shop. When all our efforts failed we laid a condition for him to go .We said that , in the toyshop , he can see the toys but we will not buy him any this time .And if he gets hungry on the way, he will be given only water and only after returning home he will be given food. He agreed and also told us in his baby voice that he will just see the toys and keep them back and will not ask us to buy him any toy. So off we went and we reached the store. He was excited, played around with all the toys which he can. No word of hunger. When we were going to get out, he picked up one toy, and came and said he wanted it. When reminded of his words that he will not take any toy, he went back and kept the toy. He spent a few minutes near the toys but came back empty handed. Then he sat in the car and wanted to listen to his favourite music. He did not ask for water too. He dozed off at the end of the journey but woke up as soon as we reached home. But he had not even opened his mouth about hunger. He is not even three and the will power he had ..... .I do not know if I was so good a child when I was that young.



Another incident the same night... He refused to have his curds after the meal. So we started trying to go through the similar exercise. I told him that he cannot get out of his chair till he finishes the curds. He was out of the chair in no time. But I put him back again. This chair was not ordinary and he had to bend , duck and slip out to get out of the chair. But he got out again. The next time I was going to put him back he thought this was a game. So , I thought that putting him on top of the fridge would stop him and he will have his curds .He came with open arms to carry him and once I put him on the fridge, he started playing with a hanging toy . Nothing deterred him. I said that I will go away and he touched the beautiful pot which was on the fridge. I was reluctant to move away. I brought him down and tried another gimmick .I put all his toys where he could not reach them, but then he brought the other toys to be put up. He was generally afraid of the dark and so I thought by putting off all the lights around he would finish his curds. This too did not work. He sat next to me and relaxed. He tried to tell me to put the lights on and had a couple of spoons but again once he was comfortable he refused. Finally I had to move away and hide in another room. My wife was around him but when he saw that I disappeared he had the curds. This drama was for another 90 minutes atleast.



I learnt how much my child knows. How long he can hold. How determined he was not to have those curds. At that age. It was a lesson I learned. I have now to learn some other ways of convincing him to agree, and finish what he has to.



Are we right in doing these things. But the point most appreciable is , he never bawled, nor cried. He just stood his way. It is a long way to go before my child becomes a man to stand on his own feet. How much there is to learn....

All these days when I read the statement "THE CHILS IS THE FATHER OF THE MAN", I was not able to understand or accept it. But after this experience I am totally in sync.