Learn to help ourselves

It was after 2 years that I went to my sisters place. Her son Karthik is now in 7th class and the last time I saw him he was a small kid. I was really excited to see my sister after so many years and was looking forward to meet her. 

The day arrived and I started to her place. The moment I reached her house, I was in a shock.  The whole house seemed in a mess. She opened the door with a smiling face but I could see the tiredness and exhaustion. As I came in and was talking to her, Karthik came to the room from inside. He was very reluctant to talk to me since he had not seen over many years. However he was ordering his mom to get his shirt for school ready. I was surprised my sister silently obeyed his orders. Then I saw his throw his old dress into the pile of laundry and rush out of the house. All this while my sister hardly spoke a word. 

I could not keep silent any longer. It was hardly an hour I came to her house and could see something wrong going on. When I spoke to her she mentioned that he was a kid and does not like to keep things clean. But the problem was she never taught him the right ways. Assuming that kid is small and will understand as he grows up is totally wrong. How will he understand when he has grown up seeing that. I asked my sister to slowly teach him to wash clothes or at-least put the clothes into the washing machine while she could attend other chores.However she herself did not want him to do that.

"Let him focus on studies. I do not want him to get involved in these things", were her words. By showering a lot of love on our children, we are closing their eyes from reality. Karthik has always seen his mom doing the dirty laundry and other household work. Has there been a single day his dad has done that? Never. How will he learn about equality and sharing the load if this is the example he has seen. 

My sister has to let go of the fact that he is a small kid. Class 7 kids are no more small. They are much smarter than us these days. He needs to be taught to respect others and see all genders equally. If this is the example in my own house, I am sure this is the case in many households.

So I urge all the ladies to let go of perfection and lets not blindly shower love. Lets learn to help ourselves to better our future self !

I am joining the Ariel #ShareTheLoad campaign at BlogAdda and blogging about the prejudice related to household chores being passed on to the next generation.

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