Children are hard to understand. No matter how much ever we love them, care for them, get them everything they want, they always give you an idea that they think you don’t love them enough and at times they just make us realize how immature our thoughts are about them.
Once I bought a cycle for my six year old son who jumped out of joy to see the shining new cycle at the porch when he came back from school. He ran towards it screaming and laughing at the same time. I was filled with satisfaction to see that. Not that it was not an expected reaction, but because that’s just what I hoped for. He circled it twice before he slowed down and looked closer and observed each part of it in detail. If someone had asked him how many steel bolts were used in the cycle or how many joints the chain had, no doubt he would have scored a hundred on hundred. I and my wife watched him giggle none stop and exploring his new gift and felt equally overwhelmed with joy. She was so pleased to see her only son so happy and relished every single thing he was doing. She watched him with all the joy she had when she held him in her hand for the first time.
After he finished adoring the little two wheeled beautiful thing, he was ready to take a ride on it. But he soon realised that it was a little big for him. He looked at me as if he was asking me “now what?” I had purposefully bought him a slightly bigger cycle without any balancing wheel because I wanted him to learn to tackle such little difficulties and also because he could use it for a longer time.
From that moment I was assigned a new responsibility - teach him to ride his new cycle. We decided to go to the park road where there is no traffic. He would sit on the seat and put his leg on the peddles and move forward while I hold the cycle from behind and prevent it from falling or even tilting. My wife was even happier as now her lazy husband is going to do some exercise as well. I was no less happy because I knew I would get a break from the tiring office thoughts and can spend more time with my son. After all, isn’t it more pleasing to watch your child laugh, play and learn than to sit idol in front of the modern DTH ‘informative box’.
This went well for a few days. My son would sit comfortably on the seat and peddle his cycle while I run behind it listening to his school stories and giggle. I slowly realised that it was time for him to learn the next step now that he learnt to peddle the cycle, steer it properly. He now has to learn to balance it all by himself. Come on, he cannot expect me to be behind him through his life. I have to retire one day and he will have to support himself both in cycling and in life. I slowly started to test if he can manage without help. He would initially go for a small distance before gently going to one side. I would hold the cycle before he even notices the difference. Each day the distance grew and grew. So one day I decided to let him go. The only mistake I did was I did not tell him that he has already mastered the talent. I realised this only when he hit and fell and injured his knee. As soon he fell down he turned and looked to find me running from a distance. He started to cry. I rushed to him, lifted him from the ground shook off the small grains of sand on his body. Minute drops of blood tinted his little knee. I tried to console him. He just looked at me and continued crying. I decided to take him back home and lifted the cycle and checked it. Besides minor scratches, the cycle was just fine.
I felt guilty. Guilty for my son’s wound. I felt that it was not his knee that hurt him but the realization that his father left him to his fate. He trusted me. He would have expected me to hold him so that he could smile and say, “I have no fear daddy. I know you won’t leave me”. But now, I am responsible for his wounded knees. He has realized that his father just cheated him. He did not keep his promise to teach him cycling, instead waited till he crashed and hurt himself. I didn’t know what to tell my son who was resting on my shoulders weeping.
Just then, my son, in a very soft voice, as if in a Trans or something, asked me “daddy, will you teach me cycling tomorrow?” to my surprise, there was hope glittering in his eyes.
Once I bought a cycle for my six year old son who jumped out of joy to see the shining new cycle at the porch when he came back from school. He ran towards it screaming and laughing at the same time. I was filled with satisfaction to see that. Not that it was not an expected reaction, but because that’s just what I hoped for. He circled it twice before he slowed down and looked closer and observed each part of it in detail. If someone had asked him how many steel bolts were used in the cycle or how many joints the chain had, no doubt he would have scored a hundred on hundred. I and my wife watched him giggle none stop and exploring his new gift and felt equally overwhelmed with joy. She was so pleased to see her only son so happy and relished every single thing he was doing. She watched him with all the joy she had when she held him in her hand for the first time.
After he finished adoring the little two wheeled beautiful thing, he was ready to take a ride on it. But he soon realised that it was a little big for him. He looked at me as if he was asking me “now what?” I had purposefully bought him a slightly bigger cycle without any balancing wheel because I wanted him to learn to tackle such little difficulties and also because he could use it for a longer time.
From that moment I was assigned a new responsibility - teach him to ride his new cycle. We decided to go to the park road where there is no traffic. He would sit on the seat and put his leg on the peddles and move forward while I hold the cycle from behind and prevent it from falling or even tilting. My wife was even happier as now her lazy husband is going to do some exercise as well. I was no less happy because I knew I would get a break from the tiring office thoughts and can spend more time with my son. After all, isn’t it more pleasing to watch your child laugh, play and learn than to sit idol in front of the modern DTH ‘informative box’.
This went well for a few days. My son would sit comfortably on the seat and peddle his cycle while I run behind it listening to his school stories and giggle. I slowly realised that it was time for him to learn the next step now that he learnt to peddle the cycle, steer it properly. He now has to learn to balance it all by himself. Come on, he cannot expect me to be behind him through his life. I have to retire one day and he will have to support himself both in cycling and in life. I slowly started to test if he can manage without help. He would initially go for a small distance before gently going to one side. I would hold the cycle before he even notices the difference. Each day the distance grew and grew. So one day I decided to let him go. The only mistake I did was I did not tell him that he has already mastered the talent. I realised this only when he hit and fell and injured his knee. As soon he fell down he turned and looked to find me running from a distance. He started to cry. I rushed to him, lifted him from the ground shook off the small grains of sand on his body. Minute drops of blood tinted his little knee. I tried to console him. He just looked at me and continued crying. I decided to take him back home and lifted the cycle and checked it. Besides minor scratches, the cycle was just fine.
I felt guilty. Guilty for my son’s wound. I felt that it was not his knee that hurt him but the realization that his father left him to his fate. He trusted me. He would have expected me to hold him so that he could smile and say, “I have no fear daddy. I know you won’t leave me”. But now, I am responsible for his wounded knees. He has realized that his father just cheated him. He did not keep his promise to teach him cycling, instead waited till he crashed and hurt himself. I didn’t know what to tell my son who was resting on my shoulders weeping.
Just then, my son, in a very soft voice, as if in a Trans or something, asked me “daddy, will you teach me cycling tomorrow?” to my surprise, there was hope glittering in his eyes.
3 comments:
nice one...
good one.
keep posting....
real nice :)
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