Impact of breaking chandelier

I still remember that day. I was ten years old. That day my father had brought a beautiful chandelier. It was in a box, with an image of the chandelier. I was tempted to open the box. I opened the box and held the chandelier in my hands. Since it was heavy, I was unable to balance it in my tiny hands. As a result it fell from my hands. There was a thud sound, of the chandelier crashing on the ground and in my mind of the rebuke which I would get.

I wasn’t scared of my father. He never scolded us. But my mother. She was very strict. I was afraid of her. To my surprise my mother didn’t scold me for breaking the chandelier.

The next day I asked her why didn’t she scold me even after breaking the expensive chandelier. She said “When it is broken into pieces, what is the point in scolding you? It will not be joined again by scolding you.” I forgot the incident.

Now as a mother, when my children do such things, I remember the chandelier and my mother. My mind asks me “if your mother scolded you when you broke the chandelier?” Children are curious about their surroundings. Many times they are unaware of the consequences. So we shouldn’t scold them or punish them. This lesson was the direct impact of the chandelier which had fell from my hands.

As a mother and a teacher I followed the lesson learnt from the aforesaid impact throughout my life. Children are full of curiosity. They want to learn new things. Sometimes when handling the objects, they may break or damage them. But they learn from those experiences.

One day one of my students said. “Madam, if I break a cup my mother shouts at me. Yesterday a big jar of pickle fell down from her hands and broke. The pickle and glass splinters went to the dust bin. But mother said it slipped from her hands by mistake. So it slips from her hands and falls from my hands.”

But my mother had not shouted at me when I broke the chandelier. The impact of that incident ensured that I never shouted at my children. My children will never speak about me like that student of mine. Being parents our acts have a deep impact on our children.

My mother’s act had a deep impact on my personality. She had taught me a lesson which perhaps no course in teaching or child psychology could teach me. That incident of breaking the chandelier still runs before my eyes, as if it had happened just yesterday. It has made me wise and a better person. It has had a great impact upon me. 

This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.