As I was browsing the newspaper yesterday, a cartoon strip caught my eye. It was about a mom of an eight year old, who gets flustered with the demands of her daughter for high-heeled shoes and fashionable clothes and finally yells – “Stop, just stop!” The surprised daughter asks, “Stop what mom?” Back comes an instant reply, “Stop growing up!”
As parents, we want our kids to grow up, in every sense. We are constantly teaching them new things, urging them to take on new challenges, helping them to overcome their fears. In fact, there are certain times, when we even conveniently use it against them in an argument. How many times have you said to your kid – “Behave like a grown-up kid…you are acting like a baby!”
And yet, there is that little part of us which secretly hopes that they would never grow up.
Is it the change that we are apprehensive of? Or is it because, it reminds us of the fact that as the kids are growing up, so are we? Or is it the thought that someday, this bundle of joy, which is a part of our heart and soul, is going to fly out of our nest and have a life of his own?
Whatever it is, the fact is that time waits for no one. And the only thing that we can do is spend it with our kids….so that at least, we are witness, to them growing up.
