Calvin and Hobbes Again

I happened upon a Calvin and Hobbes book yesterday, and it for sure made for some nice laughs. Looks like I've picked the ones on parenting....was not intended. I just picked the ones that made me laugh aloud :)

During our Coorg trip we saw this incident, pretty common place one.....by the road....this little girl is yanked by the mother and given a tight whack. Her fault? Her mothers perception that she was going to run onto the road. And Diksha's like...poor kid, I wonder if she even knows why she's being whacked.

Mind patterns are the most pronounced in parenting. And worse, it gets camouflaged in doing good for the child. The parent always knows better kinds. 

And how? This over arching need to help them get better....stay healthy... learn discipline... and so on. In real, the child seems to be the last thing we're thinking about. What happens to talking and explaining and appreciating and rationalizing? 

In fact, these two lines from the Somerset Maugham I read the other day come to mind ....Maugham is being introduced to two little children aged 9 and 7 of the female protagonist. And his observation...'they were the cutest little kids, they said just the right thing,  did just the right thing.....so well behaved'.......she's apparently bringing them up to be non thinking individuals'

Calvin and Hobbes says it even better :)

Why is it difficult to see that they have a mind of their own, and each time we say 'no' , which if you'll observe is way way too often, we are actually obstructing a natural flow....a beautiful flow of another life......