Stop Scolding Your Kid In Public

Children are also sensible like adults and they have also self-respect.

We booked a cab to go to a sea beach. I was sitting at the front seat and holding my mobile and most probably reading an article on Medium. My kids were at the back seat with their mother. The signal light turned red. My daughter yelled and instructed the captain to stop. He smiled and looked at me. His gesture was proof of appreciation to my daughter. He told me she is an intelligent kid at a very young age. I confirmed she is 4 plus. Then she started saying something in English. Second smile from the captain I received. He looked at me curiously and asked she speaks in English. I replied sometimes she does speak in English.

I heard the sound of the door lock. I looked back and found my daughter was pulling the lock. The captain turned the child lock on. I lost my temper after assuming the consequence. I scolded her and warned her not to touch the door anytime while onboard in a car. She replied back in anger, “Please don’t scold me here, I feel bad”. Third consecutive smile from the captain. Deliberately I asked her to reply again because she sounded like a mature person with her painful voice. She replicated her sentence and told me she was badly hurt because I scolded her in front of the captain who was an unknown figure to her. She was mute and mum until we got down from the cab.

She was sad at the sea beach. I promised her not to scold her in public and said sorry. She gave me a hug and a moon-shine smile. We told her to go to the nearby slide and play. My wife was also astonished after seeing such a reaction from our apple daughter. My wife shared with me that my daughter loves me more than her even if she spends most of her time with my wife. Hence, my daughter got hurt and reacted in such a manner to me.

Childhood is a literary important stage for a child to nourish their heart and brain. Their brain is sharp and they have also a very strong sense of emotion. Sometimes as a parent we overlook this aspect in a child and we beat them, scold them, sometimes torture them mentally, which is not only unacceptable but also an inhuman behaviour. As parents, we have the right to punish our children in a way to learn the lesson of their mistakes after considering self-respect should not be harmed of them same like my daughter.

This is an open notice to the parents who scold their children in public. Kids are like flowers to bloom with beauty and aroma. Their presence brings a sense of fulfillment in our garden of life. Children are an inspiration to make us adults better people. Work-life balance, work stress, business, Entrepreneurship, etc. can be dealt without hurting or insulting children at home and in public.

This incident took place one month back, but my daughter still remembers it vividly. Sometimes she reminds me that I scolded her in a running cab in front of an unknown person.

Thank you for reading!