Story of the kite

The kite flies, but always controlled by the string. People decide the direction of the kite. The kite says, “My heart kept telling me…higher…higher…but how can I fly high with a string that ties me to someone holding it at the other end”?

It is the same thing you are doing to your children.

How many of you hold your children’s freedom in your arms like the string of the kite? For how long are you going to do this? If you think you are making your child’s future bright by tying them up, you are wrong. They have their own needs and dreams to be achieved. We have to allow them for that. Sure, parents should lovingly hold the strings for a while to avoid fatal falls or errors. But not continuously tied up for your self interest.

What is Responsible Freedom?

“Responsibility” and “Freedom” are two sides of the same coin.

Children should be given the freedom and independence to achieve what they need.

All the child needs is direction and guidance to reach his/her destination. Parents also need to understand that their child is an individual who will have his/her own perspectives to life based on their interests and experiences. Too many parents allow their children freedom but protect them from the responsibilities that goes with it. Or they enforce responsibilities without freedom. A child should be provided both for a healthy living.

First, teach the children that they are responsible for themselves. They are ultimately responsible for their actions. Actions have consequences and children need to learn it. Those kids who were never allowed to learn consequences at a young age make judgments that are truly dangerous. So allow children to be responsible and take up responsibilities in life. When you teach them to be responsible, you also teach them to be independent. And when they become independent they attain freedom.

What can we do?

Lets give them the freedom they deserve.

Freedom to do what they like, to do their own things.

Children should be free to explore their world and to grow up. And parents should be there for them to teach how to do it in a safe and respectful way. Strings and ropes are not meant for free people, but only for slaves and animals. To learn how to be free is something like learning to walk. It’s a matter of trial and error. Help your children to stand on their own feet and to use their talents in the right way.

Parents and all the elders out there should know, accept and respect certain parameters of freedom. Freedom with minimal limitations is a necessity for all the children. We have to allow children the freedom to make mistakes, to dream high and achieve success, choose their own path according to their capabilities.

Picasso said it well “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.”

We all saw the world more clearly when we saw it for the first time, before a life time of habits got in the way. Our challenge is to get back there, to see those little details, to look broader, look closer and to think younger so we can stay beginners. Our challenge is to wake up each day and say “how can I experience the world better?”

Today the world is very challenging.

To survive in this challenging world a child should be a balanced out product of responsible freedom. He/she as a balance scale should have responsibility on one plate and freedom on the other to have a perfect balance in life.

The best thing we can give our children is to provide them ‘Responsible Freedom’.