The Child Today

2 October 2014 09:39 am

By Mandulee Mendis

 

The definition of the child we know speaks of an innocent creature who treasures bliss of life.

• He loved playing with friends and learnt lessons for life from fighting. He loved his parents more than anything and trusted in family first. He was a beautiful boy who wanted to be like his father and for him his father was the greatest hero.

•  She was an innocent girl who loved singing, dancing and fairy tales. When getting older she became more pretty and brought felicity to home. She loved her parents and adored her teachers. For her, family was the best miracle on earth.

What happened to him and her?

Today’s children are unbelievable that no one can identify what compels them to be so. They are very aggressive, selfish, competitive and stubborn that most of them are out of control.

1. The main reason for this is that children are being used as objects. Children’s day is merely an out-show. When there is a school function someone should welcome the chief guest. Who cared who welcomed the chief guest back then? Today the whole batch of children and parents are competing to be chosen as the one to welcome the chief guest. If two have been selected, there is a grand competition for the attire. Why? They are children and they don’t care what they wear. It’s parents who are going nuts day by day.
2.  One very strong reason is the peer influence. Today’s children believe in friends more than they believe in parents. Because of the restrictions parents impose, they tend to get more closer to friends who say family is not important. In most of the cases the children who are coming from broken homes compel other children who come from good homes to get away from home. Children don’t see that their friends are doing it out of jealousy.
3.  Children get entangled with love affairs in their small ages. The fact they don’t understand is that they won’t get another chance to be a child. When those issues and feelings whirl in a child’s mind, his/her cuteness and innocence fades away.
4.  Another fact is third party involvement. When the parents raise a kid, there is a limit up to which grandparents and other relatives could get involved. There are some instances where the grandmother takes the whole responsibility of the child leaving behind the father of the child. There are also times when father’s sisters take control of the family leaving behind the mother. The result of this will spoil the child. Yes, parents should be strict on some things and kids can’t be allowed to do whatever they want.
5.  It is normal for children to fight. In olden days children fought and they learnt lessons. There were times where they became best friends after the fight. But today if two boys fight, that’s their end. Parents get involved within minutes and they put fuel to the fire. The small fight will end with one boy taken to police. It doesn’t stop there. Then parents take children for counseling and anger management sessions confusing their whole world. Why can’t they be treated like normal children?

This children’s day, let your child be a child. Don’t put much pressure on him/her for exams and other competitive things. Rather than giving your child a present this time, teach her how important to stay as the child he/she is and that his/her time as a child will not come again.