Monday, July 12, 2010

Life is Cruel but You've to Survive

Every day, I wait to hear about my son's day in school. It's the highlight of my day - to unwind with him and hear him talk about how well/badly his day is. Sometimes, he has good days. There are times when he has bad days because a child in class behaves nastily. I had read somewhere that kids are territorial in nature. Like lions or hunting animals, they can sense fear and act upon it to their advantage. I never believed it then but from the time I've started observing how children behave, I've noticed its true. Kids pick on kids who seem frightened or timid in their presence. In my son's class, the girls are more aggressive and dominating. I remember that it was the same in my school too. Perhaps these are scraps of memories and may have nothing to do with it being girls or boys. I am sure that today's little boys and girls are more influenced by the movies they see than we were. That too has something to do with the aggression in their behavior.

In an English movie that I saw, I recalled the words of a father to his son, "Life is cruel but you have to survive."

The words stay with me when I think of some children who say or do cruel things to other kids. They feel its their right to survive. The weaker kids give in or become dominated by it because they too want to find an easier way to survive. It's no different when we grow up and pass through high school, college and the battleground of life. We learn ways to tackle cruelty and we find the means to survive somehow.

Maybe we know deep within, that there is no choice but to survive.

5 comments:

Samvedna said...

Bullying in the schools is something very cruel to simple children..one of its ugly side is shown in the movie..Sikandar.

Sometimes I wonder about the parent of those bullies..how they react to it and why their children turned out to be like that?

SG said...

Very nice and informative post. These badly behaving kids are called bullies. There are 3 kinds of bullies.

1. Aggressive bullies are likely to hurt someone physically. 2. Taunting bullies are verbally abusive. 3. (Thanks for the internet) Cyber bullies harass other kids through instant messaging and emails.

The only way is not to show them you are afraid or uncomfortable. Life is cruel but we have to have the will to survive.

Felicity Grace Terry said...

Children can be so cruel and I hate to say it but it's true that the bully is often being bullied themselves and feels that they have to regain some power by picking on an even weaker/more sensitive child.

R. Ramesh said...

sanand sir, human beings r gr8 survivors..:)

subu said...

Don't worry. Let your son grow to become assertive, not aggressive. You be the bedrock of confidence, support and source of his strengh!