I Learnt These 10 Essential Things From My Parents. What About You?

There are so many things we learn from parents, sometimes even without actually being taught. Here is a personal list of 10 such things that this author makes.

Parent– this six-letter word has the whole world in it. All words fail to express gratitude for the things parents do for their children. Parents not only bring a new life into this world but nurture it. Parents try to mold their children in the best possible manner.

For every child, parents are the first heroes/role models. Children don’t realize the efforts that parents take in raising them because parents don’t show it. When we are small, we don’t remember what our parents have done for us. When we are teenagers, we feel that everything they say is wrong. And when we grow up we have our carriers and own lives to look forward to. In short, we rarely reflect on what our parents have done for us. It does not mean that we don’t love our parents. Deep down our minds, we know that our life would have been terrible without our parents. It’s just about giving them the long due consideration.

I am not a parent myself yet. But recently I have had the opportunity of observing a few of my friends very closely. I have seen the way they take care of the children, how they tackle their children’s tantrums, how they try to fulfill all the wishes of their children. All this took me back to my childhood and knowing what I am capable of I could feel nothing but much more love, respect and compassion for my parents than before.

So, going down the memory lane from as long as I can remember, and observing my parents and other parents; I came up with a list of things we can learn from parents. In my mind the list is endless, but here I will put a few prominent points:

Unconditional Love

Even though some people say that children are parents’ insurance for old age, I think otherwise. I never thought so. Even now as I am all grown up and independent my parents expect nothing from me. All they want to do is to give and give. Times are changing now. Nowadays parents don’t expect their children to take care of them in their old age. In fact in the urban families today, where the husband and wife are both working, it’s the grandparents who are looking after the kids. And so the onus falls on us as children to take care of our parents voluntarily.

Patience

Kids and their tantrums. Oh, God! But parents never say so. It’s just the others. I have never seen anyone as patient as a parent. Some people might like to debate it. Many a kid gets a good shouting from parents, but that doesn’t mean that parents aren’t patient enough. What about kids being excessively mischievous and demanding?

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Perseverance

Kids don’t listen and parents don’t give up. It’s the golden rule. Just try to remember the tantrums you must have thrown as a child while eating your food and how hard the parents must have tried to feed you.

I can’t fathom what would have happened to us if our parents would have given up on us. All of us stop listening to our parents at some point or the other, thinking that they don’t know things. If they would have stopped putting sense into us; we would have been nothing but a mess.

Financial management

Not all of us are born with a silver spoon. But still, our parents try to fulfill all our desires in the best possible manner. And after all this, they still manage to save for our education, their old age, our marriage. They find means to be happy and satisfied with the resources they have, however, limited they may be.

Respect

Even though we are taught moral science in school but many virtues are learned better by observation and seeing others. Respect is one such virtue. It’s our parents who teach us to respect everyone. And so as a parent, one is consciously mindful of how they behave with others, as they thrive to set up a good example for their children.

Commitment and Team Work

Running a family is just like running a company where happiness and contentment are profits; despair, tension, drifts are losses. Our parents are different individuals but they teach us to co-exist and love one another in spite of the differences. In every family the work and tasks are divided amongst parents does setting up a classic example of teamwork. Many parents face problems like depression, identity crisis, mid-life crisis; but they don’t give up on their children or families. Their commitment to their families is first and foremost.

Composure

Seeing our parents worried, agitated, angry, afraid or lose control is very rare. They are no super humans. They also face tough times in their lives. But they don’t let their problems come to their face or reflect in their conduct. They keep their worries to themselves. In front of their children, they always try to be calm, composed and at their behavioral best.

Acceptance

My parents accepted us as we were. They never tried to change us or force us to do things we did not want to do. They never compared us with other kids. They came to terms with our shortcomings and help us develop into better people. Parents don’t love their children only for their qualities. They just love and accept their children the way they are.

Encouragement

Remember you parents encouraging you to sing, dance or recite that kindergarten poem in front of other family member or friends. What is it if not encouragement. Who gave us the strength and confidence to try out things? Who told us we could do it when we were unsure ourselves? Our parents. If they had not provided us with the encouragement in our crucial development years, we would lack every bit of confidence. Encouragement is very important to make children confident.

Tactfulness

As kids, I am sure we all must have made numerous impossible demands to our parents. As far as I can remember, my parents never said no directly. They always tried to steer me away from my demands tactfully. When I was growing up, I started realizing what they were doing, but the justifications they gave were so convincing that I ultimately agreed to what they said. As kids when we are ignorant and naive we ask for many unreasonable things. Our parent handle such situations with great tact and without hurting our feelings make us happy in other ways.

Even though we can never give back enough but we must try to reciprocate the love and kindness of our parents in the best possible manner.

Published here earlier.

Image source: publicdomainpictures.net

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