Article for Bethlehem Matrimonial - Jan 2018
I remember seeing an
advertisement a few years back. A young father is shopping with his son in a
supermarket. The little boy keeps a big packet of chocolates in the shopping
cart. The father keeps it back. The son promptly returns the packet to the cart
and stands there with his arms folded as if challenging his dad. The father
keeps the packet again on the stands. The kid takes a deep breath and starts
screaming on the top of his voice. The whole supermarket comes to a standstill and
stares at the kid but even more at the dad. The ad ends with the face of a
completely helpless dad with a caption showing the brand of a contraceptive
urging the viewer to use it!
The above scene is not
completely alien to us. We all must’ve seen or experienced similar scenes while
shopping. There are quite a few couples in the world today who get influenced
by the message passed on by such an advertisement and decide not to have kids
in their lives. For them, kids are nothing but a nuisance or little devils.
There are also a few couples who decide not to have a second child for the same
reason or think that they have served their purpose as parents in this world by
having one child. Ads like the one I mentioned above masks a complete spectrum
about kids from the viewers. A prospective parent or a bride and groom to be
who sees such an ad won’t see the other side of fence. Though having kids can
be argued as a purely personal choice, here are some of the thoughts related to
parenting.
Yes, kids can be demons at
times, but they are demons from heaven! No kid in this world has ever asked
their parents to bring them to this world. It is a choice that the parents make.
Hence as parents it is not ethically correct for us to blame the kids for their
behaviour which by itself is inherited from us or our ancestors.
One quite interesting fact
which many of us don’t realise about parenting is that both the ‘parents’ and the
‘child’ share the same age, especially with the first child. A parent is born
on the same day as the first child. Parenthood is a completely new experience
for the couple who till that day didn’t experience a third person in their
life. The magnitude of change that brings in with this new status in their life
is huge, most often a bigger change than getting married itself! Obviously it
will take a long time for anyone to get adjusted to such a change.
Your second child arrives and
a magic happens! Without you even realizing it, you mature yourself as parents.
You are no longer the same novice parents when you had your first child. Being
more matured as parents equips you to handle the tantrums of kids better.
What’s even more interesting and at times embarrassing is the truth some of us
realize that you could’ve loved your first child even better if you’d known
what a child really needs. It is very similar to getting experienced in a job
that makes you do the job better than having no experience at all.
There is more to parenting
than just the experience of being a parent. You will become better in managing
finances since you’ve to now plan for additional member(s) in the family. Every
other expense in life will now be multiplied with the number of kids you’ve.
Decisions on careers many a times get influenced based on kids. Some of us stop
working altogether whereas others have to shift jobs to ensure financial
freedom and security. Without these little devils we would’ve just continued
working where we were earlier. The choices you make on almost everything in
life get influenced with kids. The movies you see, the cars you buy, the
vacation you plan or even a simple decision as a restaurant to have dinner are
just a few examples where kids directly or indirectly influence your decisions.
All these and more are
nothing compared to the beautiful sight of your little ones hugging you dearly
and sleeping peacefully looking forward for another bright and beautiful day
where they can spent time with the God that they can see in this world, that’s none
other than you!
Here is wishing you a
beautiful parenting experience which is nothing short of being one with God.
Wish you all a very happy new
year! God bless!
