Childhood #atozchallenge

Frolicking in the sun whole day without a care in the world. Jumping over walls, sharing ice creams and secrets with the same gusto. Getting home dirty in the evening, and then looking forward to a quick shower, hot food and a goodnight story from mom.

For a lot of us these are the enduring memories of our childhood. The carefree spirit, the feeling of abundance even though we had little. Even a stick could become the best toy depending on where our imagination took us that day.

Sadly, today we seem to be missing out on that  childhood. Now, it is all about pushing the children into different activities,and then from one tuition to another. It has become a race to the top. I know that the competition today is immense but who started it. It was us and our desire to ensure that our child is number one and does not lack for anything.

But why have we forgotten that the best lessons that we learnt were in the games we played in childhood.  We learnt cooperation and team work by playing in the park with other children; we learnt savings from only getting fixed pocket money ; we learnt the importance of safety by falling and scrapping our knees; we learnt music and dance by singing with our cousins at the top of our voice – all this as you can see was learnt while we were having fun.

We need to remember that we luckily have memories of this fun childhood to fall back on when the going gets tough, but what would our children have?

Let them run free, let them follow their own path , their own journey. Be there to support but not lead.