Whither childhood freedom

Uvindu ILLEPERUMA

I was on my way home. Still a few miles to home I overheard a woman scolding her little child. The words, hostile and rude flabbergasted me as the cause for the reprimanding was that the boy has committed the crime of playing. How many times have I told you not to play? This is because when playing you always fall and get injured. This is the last warning, don't play.

The case was this. The child has fallen while he was playing. The child was crying giving vent to pain caused by the gashes. His cry went on reverberating amidst the shouting of the mother. Now, the child was added insult to injury by the snide remarks of the mother.

Simply, it is natural for children to fall while playing. But how ignorant and rude this mother was, I couldn't help wonder. Maybe she had some valid reason for letting off steam and I had no right to barge into their affairs, but the episode set me thinking... This is not an isolated case. Mothers of this category are not extraordinary now because most of the mothers want their child to be instant and systematic as the noodles they use to cook.

The mother who is now vulnerable for my analysis is trying to entangle the child in a world which is not at all eligible for children. Her warning over the child was to handicap the child's mind from its desire to entertain the outer world. She cares for her freedom not the child's freedom which is a necessary pre requisite for the development of the personality. That mother has done an unpardonable crime. To cut short this little child is a bane to her mother. She cannot tolerate the growth and the activeness of the child. She alleges the bursting energy of the child.

What are mother's who doesn't want her child to play. This is the hypocrisy of most of the mothers of the day. But what if the mother of Maxim Gorky didn't allow her son to entertain the nature which was waiting for him? Definitely he would not write the book Childhood which revealed the world the social anvil on which a world renowned writer was seasoned. Childhood was Gorky's' childhood records every mother who has little children still should read and fathom what the child hood is.

It reminded me of a statement from the book "Grass For My Feet '' by J. Vijayatunga.

It is as follows.

'What is childhood without scratched shins and bleeding knee caps! And what are mothers for anyway but to soothe a smarting skin' His words mean what are mother and childhood. There's nothing we can appreciate than these words about childhood and the duty entrusted to mothers.

One of my friends once said a nice story about a mother who cared for her dress than her own child. The story is that my friend saw a lady somewhat old carrying a beautiful child. The venue was a place where a birthday party was held. He thought that lady should not be its mother. After a moment he could see a young couple wandering and enjoying themselves. They came to this child and coddled it but still the child was in the arms of that old lady. The child was struggling to go into the hands of the young women. My friend heard what she said to the child. 'No son you have to be with your nanny. If I took you, you will dirty my dress'.

So were the modern mothers.

Mothers and fathers of this juncture have to do a lot. Both of them are doing jobs to keep the homes fires burning as one job cannot meet the demands of the family. More and more money is needed to feed the family. It is justifiable. But no mother or father has right to grab the right of playing from their child in the name of their busy schedule.

How can I write in this way if my mother didn't allow me to be free? If she didn't I may not know what freedom is. I asked my mother after this incident why mothers are like that. Expressing her full surprise of the fate to which that child is destined, she said, 'That mother may not have known to the characteristics a genuine mother should account for. Do you thing it is a cakewalk to be a good mother? Being the biological mother is not the exact meaning of the word meant by mother. Till she breathes her last she has responsibilities to render. The children may be married or they may be having children of their own that old mother is not finished with her responsibility towards their children because children are children to every mother thought the children have come of age. I'm your mother and I will have to follow suit.' In fact mothers should be mothers. If the mother takes the guise of the stepmother as in Cinderella's story the results the children will have to face is not at all difficult to understand.

On the other hand children should be allowed to be children. Mothers should let them do which they should do during their childhood. They cannot be playing in their adulthood.