Hear Me Out!

Dear Diary,

When I was wondering what to write today I got this in a flash, so here we go...

When I was young I stayed in an apartment. My best friend and I were neighbours. We were allowed to meet and play only during the holidays, she had a very strict mom and because of that, I valued the time my friend and I spent together a lot.

On one such occasion when I was around 6 years, when I was playing with my best friend, another neighbour Ramya, who was a couple of years elder to us, joined in. We played for a while and then she had to leave. "Why don't you girls also go home, isn't it getting late?" she told us. "We will go for a walk and then go home", I replied and started walking. I felt uneasy so I spat the saliva from my mouth and carried on with our walk.

When I got back home my mother was very angry. "Where were you?" she glared at me. "I told you I am going to play, remember?" "What did you do?", she seized my ear and harshly tugged on it. "I played and went for a walk", I said not understanding what was so wrong with a walk. "Go and apologize to Ramya immediately. I don't know what happened but Ramya's mother said you were disrespectful, it seems you spat in front of their house. She was very upset with you. I want you to go and apologize right now".

She didn't even allow me time to explain myself. "Amma, I didn't do anything wrong." I cried "I don't want to hear anything, I will talk to you only after you say sorry to Ramya". So I went to Ramya's house," Sorry Aunty and Ramya". "Don't do this again, I didn't expect this behaviour from you," Aunty told me.

I was confused as to why I was asked to apologize and I was sad that my mother did not even give me a chance to explain myself. That day I wished my mother would have stood up for me and heard me out instead of pronouncing me guilty as charged. I closed myself from her that day.

How many of us take parenting seriously? How many of us think that the child is also an individual and needs to be respected? It's high time we stop taking children for granted and listen to what they have to say.