If I were to identify the MOST important part of being an adult and especially a parent – it is this – “Keeping Your Word to a Child.”
Adults are unfortunately prone to two unnecessary habits:
- Saying things which they don’t mean
- Saying things which are not true
I’m not talking here of some major earth-shaking lies but the small day-to-day lapses. A mother tells her daughter that she’ll get a chocolate but forgets. A father promises his son help on a project but gets busy with work. A neighbour promises a child help with learning to cycle but never come back about it. A relative offers a kid to bring a specific gift during the next visit but either forgets or doesn’t visit early enough.
These are not seemingly significant issues. Adults tend to brush the off saying – “it happens”, “I forgot”, “sorry” (the more concerned ones).
But this not how a child would look at it.
As I said, the earth doesn’t shake, neither does the sky fall down – but the child’s perception of the world is definitely shaped up. Children build their habits by observing these small events. It ends up in making them exactly like the current day adults – mindless, uncaring about words, careless with promises.
Step back, take a moment and reflect – is this how you’d like your children to be?
“How does it matter if we lie a bit”, “No one is perfect”, “We can all forget small things”, – such excuses can always be used as justifications.
It’s a matter of choice. When we expect the world to be good to us, it is but our responsibility to help build the goodness around us. Thereby the well-known saying – “Be the change you want to see in the world.”
Start with kids – it’s the easiest actually, they don’t judge and they reciprocate much better the adults. Every small promise upheld will build a future of better men and women. Let us not demonstrate to the future of our world the imperfections of our past. Rather let us build a future of truth and trust.
Subhash Iyer 