Blind Dawoud woke up from his sleep to find his friend Saad, who had promised to accompany him to the market, missing the town they were visiting for the first time.
He went down to the hotel lobby and asked the first man he came across to take him to the town market, after telling him about his friend Saad’s absence. Dawood was surprised when the man grabbed his hand and pulled him. He walked with him at first while saying (Thank you very much, you are a good man), but the man did not say a word. Dawood asked: (Are you taking me to the market?) The man did not respond, he grabbed his arm with terrible force and pulled or pushed him to direct him. Dawood began to feel anxious and froze in place and said: (Where are we going? I will not move until you tell me why you are pulling and pushing me forcefully?) The man did not respond. Dawood became even more angry and said: (Are you mute?) Suddenly, his friend Saad’s voice called him: (Where are you Dawood? Why didn’t you wait for me?) Dawood shouted: Save me, Saad, from this strange man!
He is pulling me and pushing me and I don’t know where he is taking me. I only asked him to take me to the market, so Saad said (Excuse him, my friend, he is mute).
Dear educator, you may have felt angry at this leader at first, and thought of blind David who did not know where he was going, but you probably sympathized with the leader as well when you learned that he was mute.
I wonder what this story has in common with our relationship with our children. Do we talk to them and give them opportunities to understand, choose, object, or accept? How do we direct their behavior or ask them to do something?
Aren't we very much like that mute person when we drag our children behind us without them understanding what is going on around them (you have to do what I ask of you without discussion, you are still young), so they feel upset and sometimes express that through behaviors that we do not like.
We don't have to do that, because we are not mute, and our children are not blind. It is true that they sometimes resemble this blind person in their ignorance and lack of knowledge of things, but we should not be crazy like the mute, because they have the right to knowledge, learning, and guidance, and it is our duty to enable them to fathom the depths of life on their own.
Parenting may be the most difficult task, but it is the most enjoyable and beautiful when we see the fruits of our labor on our children and receive a prayer. May the hand that raised them be safe.