Prodigal Love

Prodigal Love. Parenthood is beautiful and challenging. The thoughts in this blog are my personal views.I am not an expert.Dear Friends, you may not agree to my views. When our child enters this world....as a Parent, we all want to give our kid the best of everything. We want to protect our kid from every single thing which will harm him / her. The difficulties or obstacles we faced ....the hurdles we crossed in our life journey......our Parental Love towards our kid doesn't want our kid to ever go through them ever. This Prodigal Love ...... I term it as " Prodigal "....... In Mahabharata, Dhritarashtra was blind.....a metaphor. The love for his son Duryodhan....made King Dhritarashtra turn a blind eye to all the unethical conducts especially the Dice game and Disrobing insult of Draupadi..... Duryodhan was wrong. But Prodigal Love by the" blind" King Dhritarashtra towards his son Duryodhan.....refused to correct the wrong doings his erred son committed..... This Prodigal Love lead to the great Mahabharata war.....so many innocent lives lost.....so much of sorrow and guilt. Though the Pandavas defeated the Kauravas......but nobody could ever celebrate the so called " Victory"....... Till today we celebrate Dassehra when Lord Rama defeated Ravana......in Ramayana. But do we celebrate " Victory" in Mahabharata.......?????? This blog I would like to discuss on Parental Love...... How much should we love our kids...... But how much must we control our selves....so that it doesn't cross over to Prodigal Love?????? Most of our previous generations have faced a difficult childhood due to many reasons. We feel obvious that our kid must receive the best. The technology and Globalization has opened doors to opportunities for everyone. Our hard and sincere efforts have made our life comfortable today after years of struggle. We are at a position where we can provide a better and at times a luxurious life for our children. In such situations....I see 2 schools of Parenting. A strict style of Parenting....who wants their kid to cross the fire.....to reach other end. The other liberal style.....who feels that their kid need not face similar obstacles..... The wealth I have earned,the position I am in today.....is all for my kid.He inherits all I am entitled to.... Each school is right in their own ways. But in the end,the kid has to face " Life".... ownself. Too much of rigidity cowers the kid before he/ she steps into the real world. Too much of protection and easy life...puts lot of pressure and anxiety in future when real life challenges need to be overcome and the kid is never taught nor prepared for such situations. So how can we measure this Love.....we need to shower .......to balance????? I feel...show love and affection to make the child strong and independent enough to make his / her own decisions very early in life.We must provide basic needs enough for survival of life. Allow the kid to make mistakes. Correct when wrong .Support when vulnerable. Excess of everything is detrimental for the kid...... Over pampering is very dangerous as kid becomes totally dependent upon us. Prodigal Love is dangerous. If we don't correct an erring kid at young age......in future it may lead to repercussions which may trouble or destroy our kid. Teaching our kids values of life is more important than providing them with materialistic pleasures. Teaching our kids gratitude towards everything around us....leads to Empathy in them especially towards under privileged. Spiritualism helps in mental stability which enables the kids to face tough challenges and also make right decisions in life. Dear Friends, our kids don't require our wealth for future life. Our money is needed only for sustainability. The Values we give our kids makes their foundation in life strong.This makes them mentally strong to face all challenges without succumbing to them ...without harming or hurting themselves and anyone. Parental Love needs even Discipline added into it. Mahabharata and Bhagwad Geeta teaches us all this. I am not against Modern Parenting. But in the end adults are Parents.....and we need to perform the role of Parenting responsibly..... Today's child is our future Citizen. So Moral Parenting is needed in Modern society. - Dr Tripti Milind Galgali. Hubli.