He was a nut with no mind of his own. Driven by his natural instincts of caring for offsprings, which all humans and in fact most species exhibit, he set out to be an ideal parent. He picked up a ‘Parenting for Dummies’ type book and jotted down the characteristics he wanted to see in his kids.
– Ability to make decent money – by using as far as possible, the skills they are passionate about and keeping out of trouble (not doing anything unlawful)
– Living with confidence, without fear, having life in control (as opposed to being controlled by it).
– Taking good care of self – maintaining good health with adequate exercise, proper nutrition and staying happy (stress free)
– Maintaining good loving relations with family (especially with children), friends and towards people in general.
– Exploring and enjoying life to the fullest.
Somewhere he heard the kids learn most by example. This nut being a nut, took that as a mantra, followed it literally, forgot all about his kids and just went about living his own life in line with above list!
He did maintain loving attitude towards them though, as per item 4 of the list which forced him to make some changes. So for example, next time he was angry and about to yell to discipline the kids, he stopped with thoughts ‘well if I show anger and yell, kids will learn to show anger and yell when they grow up and this is not what I want…’. He still disciplined them, but with extreme love, without raising voice and of course with right amount of firmness. He also had lot of fun activities with family and kids and put kids interest first whenever a conflict arose, again in line with his item 4 of the list.
Thus he lived a happy and healthy life, had good relations with everyone around and enjoyed life to the fullest –
But ended up doing nothing special for his kids.
To most he gave impression of being a negligent parent who did not care for the future of his kids.
But to their surprise, the kids actually turned out very matured and well adjusted human beings possessing most qualities he had wanted in them!
Seems they had grown watching this nut follow his passion, not fear anyone, take good care of himself, maintain loving relations and enjoy life (all as per the list this nut had created for his children) and had adopted the same habits.
Perhaps he was actually not a nut!
Neeraj
Recent Comments