Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Mothers and Us

Today a 16 yr old friend of mine pinged to talk about an incident at home. He had asked his parents for a 180cc bike. His dad was cool with it, but his mom said no. He went on with the rant "my mother doesnt want her son to be riding bikes :\"

After a moment of reflection, I told him "dude, probably your mom is right. It could do you more harm than good". He said "hmm" and the conversation ended there. No prizes for guessing he was looking for sympathy for himself and not support for his mom. Maybe if I were 17, I would have responded very differently, but I felt a certain responsibility (always thought of the guy as a younger brother) and acted like I did.

This made me think of several incidents when my mom said no and I was really mad at her for saying so. Like the time when she hounded me day in and day out months together for playing online games all day (warcraft anyone?). Finally I could take it no longer and quit playing. After a few days, I realized that what she had been saying all along was very true. Suddenly, I had all the time in the world for family, friends, myself, sleep, work and everything else. Nowadays I just listen to her the first time over and spare us both the ordeal.

Does all of this ring any bells? Do you have any such incidents with your mom (dad stories in another post maybe) to share?

5 comments:

  1. @ jagdish

    ya the bell rung a long time bak!! most of the times try to obey but end up disobeying :). As children v try to impose our values on parents and vice-versa is also applicable. So v have to come to a common point where v can arrive at decisions rather than arguing and building pressure over a simple petty issue for a long time. Sometimes a serious case of ours also can be disrupted by parents thinking ( quite old fashioned), so v have to put some pretty good reasons to convince them. e.g. u want to go to a different country or place for ur studies which u gives a good future, some parents may not readily agree to this, so there u can't allow parents to decide, u jus have to go but at the max convince them. ur future and life is urs!! But for the bike case which u mentioned leave it to parents is the best way, because it causes unnecessary mental tension for them worrying abt ur whereabouts and ur condition due to that silly bike!!

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  2. I feel a wee bit embarrassed **ears go red**- I think I'll scoot over that!

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  3. @gautham Sure, go ahead. Give us a good read.

    @karthic I believe parents, mothers in particular, 99% have OUR best interests in mind. Certain times, we may feel that they re simply being old fashioned. But most probably they re just looking out for us. That said, not letting a kid go out for studies is simply over-attached and smothering.

    @Narayan lol

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  4. Update: The guy got the bike. His dad gifted it to him on his birthday as a surprise for his mom !

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