Let ‘em be !!
A typical day, when I was 10.
6.00 alarm rings, mom wakes me up.
6.15 mom wakes me up
6.20 Dad picks me up and puts me in the bathroom under the shower and turns it on ! That’s when I wake up.
6.30 Breakfast
6.45 Amidst Mom’s, “You are such a lazy girl….” Comments and dad’s “Bye beta. Do well today.” I ‘d take the school bus.
10.30 pm recess Fall off swings, bump into parked cars. Get bruised. Eat and go back to class.
2.00 pm go home and eat and sleep till 5
5.00 pm wake up: finish homework.
6.00 mom comes home. I go down to play
8.00 pm come back home. Watch tv
9.00 dinner with mom dad and baby sister
10.00 pm. Dad switches off the lights
10.15 Both me and my sister are snoring to glory
A typical day in the life of my cousin who is 12 now…
5.00 alarm rings. He’s wide awake. He sits and studies French !!
6.00 he’s out of the study, he bathes.
At the breakfast table he reads the Times of India. Geez !! I never read it…
6.30 he goes to school. He’s the “Head boy” ! Umm whatever that means…
7.00 he’s heading the march past for school
8.00 to 2.00 Time for some normalcy! he sits and studies like all humans. Unfortunately the trail of normalcy is lost because he goes to an IGCSE school
3.00 returns home has lunch
4.00 goes to the gym ! for God sakes the gym !! at 12 !!
5.00 goes to classes (No he doesn’t teach. He studies there !)
6 00 comes back home. Does his homework
7.00 Goes for horse riding classes
8.00 Goes for IIT Entrance classes
9.30 comes back home
10.00 dinner and News !! For pete’s sake what is it with this boy and news ??
11.00 goes back to bed after solving the Rubik’s cube. No seriously !!
Phew ! If I were to ever solve the Rubik’s cube, I’d probably treasure it for life by leaving it the way it is. But no ! this guy messes it up every morning and solves it all over again. He talks to me about Schizophrenia and Hosni’s dictatorship !! He is the president of the social activities club and wants to do an M.B.A in International Business administration !!
I remember at 12, I would be worried about the next day’s home work and how to writhe in pain so that I could act as though I had a stomach ache and get out of going to school the next day
We are the ones to be blamed for this. Why do we call them children anymore ? Why don’t we just call them “Dried adults. Just add water to adultify”. Kids today, hardly go to the park and roll in the muck “because my clothes will get dirty”. They don’t play on swings “because its too dirty”. They do not eat with their hands “because I have forgotten my hand sanitizer at home” . They do not run “because it makes them sweat”.They do not play “because mom says it’s a waste of time !!” Well Mom, reality check ! you did all this when you were a kid and you turned out absolutely fine. At an age when they should be worried about their studies and their homework, girls are worried about getting fat and losing their Zero figure and with the new bill being considered, (to allow kids from the age of 12 to have consensual non-penetrative sex) the boys are going to have performance anxiety !!
Its disturbing to mention sex and children in the same sentence unless the sentence pertains to conception of course. But considering the kind of exposure children are having to Media today, they are becoming more and more aware about Sex, Violence, Politics, Drugs, divorces… and so many other non consequential topics at their age. Healthy information is always welcome sans the useless sensationalism and the show sha! Have we all become so busy that we cannot take out 20 minutes in each day to take our kids, nephews, nieces out to play ? Can we not sit and explain to them what Birds and bees mean ? This mindless degeneration of the value of parental guidance in today’s world has been grossly neglected. We’ve been thinking, if my child is busy enough throughout the day, he’ll probably not notice that I’m gone all the time! I think he notices and he’ll never forget it. I’m not a philosopher/ inspirational guru/Family counselor (who by the way are all shams as well. They just tell you what you know already.) Your conscience is your Family Counselor. Please listen to it. Treat kids like kids!
