It was Diwali vacation and the whole family was together. We were chatting and discussing the way my daughter speaks openly and freely even to strangers. She has made a lot of friends due to her social nature. But then, in the end, everyone was telling her not to reveal so much information to strangers and to be so friendly to everyone. The little four-year-old was unable to understand why everyone was forbidding her. In a sweet voice, she said, “But I talk to everyone because I love everyone!”
That’s when I started thinking about what her little mind must be thinking. It’s truly understood that with so many dangers around us we tend to be so cautious about who the children talk to, whom they are meeting, and what they are sharing. In the process, we forget to enjoy the innocence behind it. We forget to concentrate on the little joys of the childhood that they are having.
While restricting them for their safety, are we putting restricting them unintentionally for being loving and kind to everyone? Should we teach them to play life by the rules or let them play by their heart? Their instinct tells them to go for the latter and by restricting them we are robbing them of so many different experiences that they will have. Aren’t we the ones to teach them in moral science books to be kind and to love every living being around them?
Wasn’t this a way of life till the last few generations?
Having more than one kid in the family left the parents with a lot of responsibility, but at the same time, the kids were left alone to explore their world in their way. More than offering them air-conditioned schools and cars wasn’t the earlier generation exposed to life more than these kids by walking or cycling home and meeting different people?
So picking up from this incident I let my daughter explore some more. As I told you she loves interacting with people and she is very attached to the house help that we have. She wanted to see where she lived, so I let her go with her grandma. She had a whole new experience. She was unable to understand how the doors of all the houses were kept open all the time? She was amazed at the way children fleeted from one house to the other as if they owned the whole place. She had so many questions about the way they lived.
After satisfying all her curiosities, she went off to play with the kids. She visited a few other houses and met people. She played for a long time with the children, enjoyed a hearty meal, and eventually promised everyone that she will be back the next day. Since it was late a few people from the locality came to drop her home and she invited them inside as she didn’t want the day to end.
She loved the experience more than anything. If I would have taken her to the mall, she would have bought a few things, eaten some junk food, something which she would forget eventually. She would have asked for more next time but here she experienced love that would be with her forever. She experienced a new world where people live in coherence with lots of love and understanding.
I decided to find a golden middle and tone down the rules a little. The world is hers to explore and I am just a medium to channelize her to different kinds of exposures. Letting her experience the world through her lenses and not through mine is what will matter in the long run.
