Children - a Nuisance or Teachers of Fun, Laughter and Happiness?

Being the father of a 20-month-old, living together with several children from the age of five to fourteen and, last but not least, running a primary school for currently about 180 children, I tend to look at people’s attitude towards children and how they behave with them. I have noticed one thing quite a few times: there are people who are just absolutely not nice with children of all ages! To me, that is something rather incomprehensible.

Let me give you an example: Our boys love playing cricket outside in the garden whenever they have free time and it is not too hot. We have a big garden but the boys also have quite a good stroke which means that their balls sometimes fly a bit further than they are supposed to and land in our neighbours’ gardens. So what, you might ask – just climb over the fence (a wall in our case) and get it back or, if you want to be polite and nice with your neighbours, walk around their garden to the front gate, ring or knock and politely ask them whether you could go and get your ball out of their garden. Nobody would refuse this to playing children!

Well, that’s what you might think! Unfortunately however, not every adult person seems to agree. When our boys came back one day with empty hands, we asked them what had happened, if they had not been able to find their ball. They told us what our lovely neighbour had answered: ‘I would rather throw the ball away than give it to you! Now see that you get away from here!’

Nice, isn’t it?

It is not the first time that I hear or witness this kind of story. Some people obviously don’t have a heart for children and it makes me wonder very much how such a person feels inside! Don’t you have children yourself? Are they any different than other people’s children? And if you don’t have children, don’t you have nieces or nephews, cousins or children of friends? Even if you don’t have any child anywhere close-by, don’t you remember how it was when you were a child yourself?

I don’t say that it was a big tragedy for our boys or that they will be traumatized for their lives – we bought a new ball and they were instructed not to throw it over to that neighbour or, if so, just forget about the ball. They say at least 20 of their balls have vanished in this neighbour’s garden in this way. He is a ‘sanyasi’, like a monk, so he doesn’t have a wife or children. He obviously also didn’t reach a state of all-encompassing love! I am wondering about the mentality of this person and every other person whom I have seen reacting in a similar way to children. As what do you see them?

When I look at a child, I see innocent curiosity shining through the eyes. There is a laugh when I myself wouldn’t even get the idea to laugh, just because I got so used to seeing it! There is excitement about things that have become too much of a routine for me. There is a straight-forward thought when we got used to make things too complicated. Isn’t it wonderful to see all of this and remember how it was?

Being with children actually helps you not to forget. Don’t you want to feel that extreme happiness again about a small thing like a new ball, some new clothes or finding an old, nearly-forgotten toy? Wouldn’t you like to be excited again for the big celebrations of the year, be that Christmas and Easter or Holi and Diwali?

When you spend time with children, they will remind you of all of this and so much more! If you allow yourself to step down from everything that you think makes you ‘adult’, you can laugh freely with them about a small joke, get your clothes, hands and feet dirty while getting completely captivated by a game and feel the friendship that all these simple feelings create – regardless of age – as well as the satisfied feeling it gives you.

Unfortunately, people who see children as a nuisance miss out on all this fun!