I was in my
village for nearly a month. My daughter lived with my niece’s daugther who is
just two months older to her and a five year old boy. All of them have
different temperament – with my niece’s daugther being not that active but
quite stubborn and powerful that she has to be given what she wants. My
sister-in-law told me that she cries and never stops, until she has what she
wants. The little boy is the quiet one most of the time, only talking when my
niece’s parents are not closeby. The comments I received were that, she cries a
lot but does not move around too much, while, my daughter does not cry much but
moves around a lot. A totally worrying interest that my daughter has is her
love for climbing and her lack of fear for strangers. She does show a little
bit of hesitation at first but still, her father fears that she seems to be a
little bit too active.
Now, my fear is
not her active nature or her lack of fear for strangers. We are now back in
Thimphu and she stays home with her grandma. But the way she talks has changed.
Her accent has become a bit strong and rude. Especially when she is sleepy or
not in the best mood, she asks people to leave, and her line is, ‘ji gi la kong
cha na’, which means she beats up people. She has kept short hair till now but
recently when my mother asked if she wants to cut her hair, she said, she wants
to keep her hair long. (She moved her head, saying, ‘tsham ringbu thaan ne,
onen phi le). Hoping you can get a picture of what she did.
When I was
observing all this change in her, it suddenly dawned on me that if I am to send
her to school, she is going to sink in different characters and behaviors. I was
worried that she is going to imbibe the behavior of her teacher. And all I can
do is pray that the teachers and friends surrounding her will be positive
people. It even made me think that maybe it will be better to keep her home
till she is six years old – just so she is not exposed to different people all
at once. I think it has a danger of spoiling her in the sense of not allowing
her own natural characters to sprout.
4 comments:
It seems that my nephew, who is almost three years old, and your daughter shares a common character- lack of fear for strangers. But I consider this a good trait. :-) And how your daughter acted upon asking her to cut hair,reminded me that a girl will be girl after all. Moreover as madam said, children imbibes the character of the people around them, by that I think your decision of keeping your daughter with yourself at home would not be a wrong decision until grew is six( the age usually when a child becomes quite old enough to differentiate what is good and not.
Your article reminded of my nephew. I say, thank you, madam Kuenza. Happy day. Tcare.
Thank you Sonam for reading and leaving a comment. I do think that in today's world, a person has to be bold and courageous, not shy and timid. But as a mother, I fear that the negative influences may win over positive ones.
Glad i could get to your blog. I liked the write ups, and admired your expressions; simple and lucid.I have already read quite a number of them. As a teacher of English language, I think i have found some teaching materials on your blog and an author to motivate my students to write.
Thanks Jigme. That inspires me.
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