Parent Trap

Lately there have been two new readers on my blog, my mum and dad. Their first piece of caution "Don’t write anything anti-government and controversial, as they might ban your blog and we won’t be able to read it here". How sweet and naïve of them to think, it could really happen.

My parents have always been extremely proud of me; much to my dismay sometimes as they were and still are very vocal about my achievements however insignificant and trivial.

When I was at school, I somehow happened to be good at many things. I won every debate and essay writing competition I ever entered, was consistently one of the rank holders at academics, was student body leader both during my junior and high school and I even played Table Tennis for my state. Before you conclude that I am on an ego trip let me stress that I do have a point to make.

It being that, because of my wins I took my parents being proud about me for granted. I never realised, that there are some kids who crave to be appreciated by their parents, that no matter how hard they try they will never be good enough for them. Not in arrogance, but in innocence I never realised how encouraging my folks were and how they had managed to keep my mind free with no fear about failure.

Best of parent-children relationships see conflict of opinions, habits and attitudes. Fortunately without any love being lost, I and my parents crossed that hurdle. There are still certain things they do out of love for me which drive me crazy, but I can laugh these things off now without blowing the roof off.

Like for instance, my parents have self-appointed themselves as my publicists. They have been passing on my blog’s URL to everyone. I am not protesting to that as my blog is public and it is open to all and anyways more readers mean more feedback and more diverse opinions. But if the same thing were to happen when I was a teenager, I would have picked up an unnecessary argument with them.

During my rebellious years as a teen, there was a stage where my parents stopped stopping me. It started worrying me then that they had given up on me, on the contrary they had accepted me as I was with full confidence that I would eventually grow out of my antics.

After four years of being out of my teens, being on my own, being married, I have finally learnt to accept my parents’ ways of showing their love and pride for me, knowing that they will never grow out of those.

Though I have several years before the day, I do wonder and worry about the kind of parent I will be. To have a daughter like I was in my adolescence is my worst nightmare. A thin silver lining though being that expert and experienced advice of my parents would be just a call away.

I have always wanted to be free, free of rules, free of restrictions but now I sometimes wish that I remain trapped in my parents’ world where I cease to grow and remain a kid no matter how old I grow in the real world.