The Elephant and The Rope [opinion]
Photo: el patojo
Kids these days have unlimited potential that we should not — ever — disrupt their potential with decision like this; determine to what’s good to play and what’s not good to play. Let them have it what they want.
Ok, stop right now. If we pretend that our child is so full with potential that we have no right to restrict them at all, then there’s something with this society. If we agree that by implementing restriction, we discourage our children to spark the creativity within – then all I could say that it is so unwise. We should have some restriction on them, mostly on discipline issues.
Zaid Mohamad wrote:
“The story about the elephant goes something like this. Ever since it was born, the baby elephant was tied to a small rope. Every time the elephant moved, the rope would restrict it. During its growing years, it could only move around within the area allowed by the rope’s length.As it grew older and stronger, the rope was never changed. It looked ridiculously fragile to hold such a strong animal, but years of restricted movement had conditioned the elephant to think that the rope had the power to stop its movement. It stopped trying to free itself long ago because it had failed to do so during its early years. As a result, the elephant remained tied to the brittle rope till its death.”
I think we must have rope in every kid’s life because the story of the elephant is about discipline and structure. How come we should not guide them in proper way and let them lost in their own fantasy? Sometimes, the kids need the invisible hand, just like the government did to us.
But fair enough, too much restriction may discourage your kids talent and therefore, we should determine what to restrict.
Determine what to restrict.
Determine restriction that can make them know what is wrong and right. For instance, I will definitely –without remorse– land my rotan on my kids’ hand if they touched electrical plug that can endanger their life, or hit the glass door with their bare hand.
Other than that, they all can bombard with their toys to every inch of living, dining, and bedroom.
I agree with Zaid that we have to unleash our children potential, but I don’t buy his elephant story. Every life has a major breakthrough. If the rope was so fragile, then the strong elephant could easily unleashed the power, untie the rope.
[Smart Parenting: Unleash your child’s potential via NewStraitsTimes]