Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Its their age: Keen observation and striking intelligence

A decade back it was the day of the youth.Nowadays,its their kids'.. kids upto the age of eight are now leaving the youth behind. They intelligent than us, learn quickly through keen observation and an open mind which doesnt exist in the elders as it gets corrupted by experiences in life over years. The exposure they get and the easy access to information has made the difference. Todays Parents,the youth of yester years put all their love, care and intelligence in bringing up their kids, gave them all they had wanted from their Parents but failed to get. However, these kids have left them wondering if what have done is right or wrong. They border lines of overconfidence, so sure about what they want and dont look for advice and neither listen.Tricking them is almost ruled out but there is great possibility of them tricking us. Is this intelligence for good is what we need to be thinking.

My neighbours son who is two years old, was having a chocolate. when I asked him if I can share a bite ,, he says " Yeh Devayi hai" ( This is medicine). He must have learnt it from someone else. Only that this time he applied it to his favor.

When I took my sisters kid who visited us for her vacation for purchase, she just wontstop showing me pieces which she felt would definitely look good on me. Two mins after I enquire the attendant about a piece on whether its cotton or not, she pulls up another one and asks him " Is this cotton or metal? My periyamma doesnt want metal" She probably heard "material" as metal and was testing the knowledge she just gained. The attendant laughs " Metal a ??". She doesnt want to give up says " yeah.. dont you know metal.. Pithalai" I had to pull her out of the conversation when she got this response " Paapa pathira kadai poyichu pola inga vara munnadi" ( kid probably went shopping for vessels before coming here ).

My 4 year old neices' favorite pass time is Role play. Her name is Niranjani

Niranjani: Amma.. you are Niranjani and I am amma

Her mom: Ok

Niranjani: Niranjini.. how long its been since you woke up.. brush your teeth.. NOW

Her mom: OK

Niranjani: Oh Amma. Dont spoilt it. Do I say yes. I say No

Amma ( laughs): No mummy.. I wont

Niranjani: I am going to be angry now.. you better brush..


She gets bored at this point and comes to my Dad

Niranjani: Thatha. I am the chef. You want food. Ok?

Thatha: mmm...

Niranjani: What tiffin do you want?

Thatha: ( pretends not to understand intending to irritate her..) What?

Niranjani: Thatha.. What "TIFFIN" do you want? ( with little more volume and stress on the word Tiffin)

Thatha: What???

Niranjani: Oh thatha " What mum mum do you want?"

I can use this as an illustration for " paraphrasing " technique on call when training my team on phone etiquette. What we have to train adults to say and do, these kids know and do it naturally and by default.

All these sound good and nice still there are a lot of things to worry about as well.

My colleagues daughter wants her mom to wait until the hero/heroine undress before changing channels. If at all her Mom dares to, she says " they still have their clothes on .. why do you have to change the channel.. am enjoying watching it"

My sisters kid comments on catching me singing.. " Why do you always sing melody- ..You look so sad.. I feel sorry for you.." I asked her what then would make her feel that I am happy. She goes " sing nakka mukka or kathazhe kannalay". Thats the effect TV and media has on them.

My 12 yr old cousin doesnt want her mom to go to Parents teachers meet without straightening her frizzy hair. That is the importance they give to external beauty. I recently saw an ad where this girl says that she is ready to clean her room or worse even do dishes (!!!) if God can make here pimple vanish before the DJ night. Here cleanliness is about being without a pimple. Kids who are 8 or 9 yrs get waxing done on body hair. Hygiene, health and beauty are confused with one another. If clean skin has to be fair and flawless, where would all the dark skinned or pimpled population go

Talking about ads, Virgin mobile ads irritate me to the core. The entire value system is questioned and made fun of. Many of them expect me to see the humor and ignore it, what about the kids who grow up watching it everyday? Generation gap? I dont know.

Well, I started somewhere and deviated to these topics. Getting back,Are we going to feed their intelligence with something good or let them turn into a bunch whose values would be nothing but materialistic and fake? What about their life after their thirties when the charm and intelligence starts to fade, life becomes lonely and monotonous?

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Nice one Nicole...

Deepak said...

Parents definitely need to take on more responsibility. TV certainly isn't good! I think it's best that until the child is 15 or so, there be no cable connection. Just a TV + a dvd player for select movies/shows chosen by parents - or better yet, no TV. Maybe, no news papers also - there is anyway nothing worthwhile in them. But are parents ready for something like that?

There is no point at all blaming children for their behavior until they are 15 or so. It is all learned from parents (70-80%) and the outside world to the rest of the extent.

We don't give enough importance in moulding them in their formative years.

Alvy said...

Exactly Deepak, the amount of responsibility we take in providing education( academic) and facilties,we probably are not doing it with respect to their personality and values. We also conveniently pass on our weakness to them