So whenever a child enters people’s lives, they always think, it’s time to teach. No! When a child enters your life, it’s time to learn. Because, between you and your child, who is more joyful? So who should be a consultant for life? Definitely he’s better qualified than you, isn’t it?
You have to teach him a few survival skills, that he will learn anyway. You can also guide him a little bit. But when it comes to life, he’s able to make any simple situation a joyful situation. So definitely he must be the consultant for life, isn’t it? It doesn’t matter how glum you are, if you have a child in your house, unknowingly you will laugh. Unknowingly you will play. Unknowingly you will dance. Unknowingly you will crawl under the sofa. These are not things you have done for a long time.
Don’t infect the child with what you call as adulthood
So, the most important thing is, don’t infect the child with what you call as adulthood. This is not adulthood, okay? This is just suicide in instalments. With anything he can make a situation wonderful for himself. It doesn’t matter what. You give him a piece of wood, with that he makes his life for the whole afternoon, isn’t it? You have to learn to live like him.
And, see when you were growing up, whatever problems you had, did you go to your parents or to your friends? Whom did you share it with? Friends. Why is it that parents, who have been with the children right from day 1, can’t be good friends? You just have to get off your pedestal. That’s the most important thing. And be a friend. If he has anything, you should be the first person that they share with, isn’t it? Yes? That’s a very important safety net for the child. It doesn’t matter what their problem is – if you leave that level of openness and friendship with them, if they come to you first, there is every possibility that they won’t get lost on something, isn’t it?
Parents should get off their pedestal, and start treating them [children] as equals
Especially, in a society like this, where the moment the child steps out, you don’t know what influences are going to catch him up. The most important thing is this, that parents should get off their pedestal, and start treating them as equals. This has to happen right from childhood, you know. That he never sees you as somebody who is pushing him around, or bossing around, or all the time advising him about something. That you are very much a friend, he can talk to you and you talk to him as an equal. If this is maintained right from the beginning, when he is developing and there are possibilities that he is taking wrong steps and things like that, you will be the first person he comes to. That is something we have to build, isn’t it?
