They were playing with their toys. Enacting stories to the best effort they can achieve. The elder would perform monologue when he feels like. The younger appreciated the effort of her brother. Laughter and cheering filled the room. It is the ideal atmosphere every family would dream of.
The words spoken were pure, coming straight from the heart. There is no sign of manipulating any situation created so that one might gain edge over the other. Two kids enjoying their time with the few toys they had. When they need to use rude words, I enquired where they heard the words. It was from us parents or from outside the house. They learned from what they saw and heard.
I hardly interfere while they were playing. Since becoming a stay-at-home dad, I had the privilege of watching nearby them. Whenever they needed an extra person for role-playing, I’d dropped in. I served, mostly, as their quick dictionary or adviser the whole time. It was worth the wait and the watch. I feel like saying, folks don’t grow up. The world is full of evil minds. But I cannot do that either.
Many thoughts came to my mind; before they became intoxicated with the real world full of crooks. The phrase, ‘Grow up! Get a life!’ was used many times, to the honest and kind-at-heart kids, who are not willing to get adapted to the cruel world. Can you imagine what the world has become? Our kids are at risk whenever they step out of the house. Worst still, some are at a greater risk at home.
What have the human heart become? What goes wrong? Oh my! There are so many things to tell. Give the kids their own space. Nurturing and caring them to illuminate their innate being to create better societal values may lead to more peaceful surroundings, mind you. The more we become old the more our minds get corrupted with evil thought.
By teaching them the way of life, sometimes I feel, we are simply imbibing the ideals of a cruel world. ‘You know son, when you go out you should be careful not to talk to any stranger’ was a common piece of advice we gave them. ‘They are not good people, avoid them as you can’. We taught them so that in the least they can help us in safeguarding them. That’s our duty. But on the flip side, we are teaching them bad things that can be done. You might not agree here. I did not fully agree though. But I wanted to emphasize on the condition of the world we lived in.
Had the minds been still pure as they did in our younger days, the world would be full of laughter and happiness. Still we can something starting from our home to change the world. Nurture the young minds to live up to their mind. Bringing up children, if taken seriously, was a big challenge. To bring up a peace-loving and harmonious mind in today’s world would be a huge challenge. Still then, our best should be tried.
There are a tremendous amount of good things to learn from children. Corrupted minds and corrupted thoughts should learn lessons from the young minds. But who would do that! We don’t have time for others, nor do we try to learn that costs nothing.
