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Parenting



Before deciding to bring a child  into this world, we had quite a number of people "advising" us ON how important it is to have kids. Some talk about how you need to be taken care of in old age, some about how important it is for "society" and some about the unconditional love that they receive from the child.  Jerry Seinfeld talks in his show about how at one point, couples need nobody as their friends as they can create their own people!!

 Being a mother for the last 4 years, what I have learnt in parenting and the reasons why I am glad I am a parent are not in the above list.

Having a child has been helping me understand myself better. My daughter seems very much like me and when I see her, I am reminded of the struggles one has in growing up, in learning and making sense of this world which by now I had taken for granted. It is almost an out of body experience for me and it has been like watching me grow up.

It gives me a peek into my favorite topic of cognition and behavior when I see my daughter's personality getting shaped up. It is like your project / case study on behavior and cognition development.

Having a child has made me want to be a better person (to borrow a line from a famous movie). Just like all good influences in your life, this is a good side effect. You just can't slouch or just laze away. Having a child keeps you on your toes, makes you more disciplined, brings up more opportunities for social interaction, increases the number and quality of experiences that you have in your life overall, thereby giving you many million opportunities to know more about yourself and be a better version of yourself with each passing day.

Taking the leap to have a child is like going ahead with that adventure sport roller coaster ride, you might have been lazy or terribly scared to try it at first, but once you've tried it, you've learned some more about yourself and are glad that you tried. (Whether you'd give it a second shot is a different discussion altogether !! :) )

I am going to generalize and say that all of us,  whatever we do, want to see progress in our selves and to eventually know more about ourselves in this life's journey and to be at peace with that knowledge.  This is exactly what Parenting has been giving me.





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