Joke. Journey. Justice.

11th April 2023

Dhruv was completing his homework, and Rakesh and Reena enjoyed their evening coffee. As they were chatting casually, Dhruv came and asked, "Mumma, what does the middle finger symbolize?" Reena was furious and about to lose her cool when Rakesh touched her palm indicating her to remain calm. Rakesh smiled and calmly asked, "Why are you asking this? Did something happen?" Without any delay, Dhruv responded, "Yes Dadda. So there was a small fight between two boys on my school bus, one of them showed a middle finger to the other in the end."
"Ohh. Are they of your age? Or elder than you?" Rakesh quickly followed up. "No, no. They are in the 8th standard. Elder than me." Dhruv replied. Rakesh very casually said, "Then you should ignore it because it is not for you. It is for the elder ones. When you grow up you will come to know."
Dhruv paused for a while and asked, "But Dadda... What if someone shows me a middle finger?" "Then you should show them all 5! Why be partial? Show them all fingers! 😀" Rakesh said this and laughed out loud.
Reena, on the other hand, is worried about Dhruv getting exposed to things that are not appropriate for his age. But Rakesh makes her understand, if they send Dhruv out, incidents like these will happen. They have to prepare him for everything and there is no escape. Reena finds it hard to accept, but she is partially convinced Rakesh is right. So she makes up her mind to accept and considers this incident to be a bump in their parenting journey.




Joke.
As much as it is important to keep kids exposed to age-related jokes, it is equally important to transform a serious and tense situation into a light one by cracking a silly joke. This may sound like a childish idea, but trust me, it makes it easy for kids to survive and sail through tough times because we make it appear funny to them. Jokes and humor are essential ingredients in parenting, it is not mandatory but their absence will make things difficult and relatively different than their presence.

Journey.
Parenting is a journey that is destined to make memories. There will be bumps, turns, and straight roads as well. Let us face it, the moment of truth is, whether given a choice or not, parents who face it all with a calm mind, encouraging words and without losing shit are the ones who are happy! The real test is stretching the level of patience with the age of kids! To make this journey worthwhile and memorable, the only recommendation is to set realistic expectations and stay hopeful in all situations.

Justice.
When kids socialize, they come across all age groups. We as parents can control the screen content they watch at home, but we can not practically be with them to see who they meet and what they talk about. The only thing we can do is establish a relationship that makes sure they consider us trustworthy enough to reach out when they come across something new.
Then it is our responsibility to give them closure, with a convincing answer. The times we will leave their curiosity unanswered is the same time they will seek other sources to feed their curiosity and answer their questions.
Note: This post is a part of #Blogchattera2z 2023.