It is with good intention that we want our kids to succeed in academics and have a secure future. Therefore parents start planning the career of their child from a very young age. Gone now are the days where a child could afford leisure. We don’t see children flying kites, playing cricket, riding a bicycle or even dancing in the rain. 

It will be unjust of me to proclaim that a child needs leisure, so please do give them the freedom. But what I can do is, help you out with a small analysis. Put yourself in these shoes. You don’t know a thing in this world; you are being told that you need to work hard to achieve your goal; the goal mind you is not even yours. So you work towards the goal, with the least amount of leisure. How long do you think you could go on? Well, you would have to go on for about 20 years.

If you thought of a lesser period than that, trust me you don’t even know what that person is going through. This is a prototype of what a child would go through until one day he/she get a job. Oh and now you think the game is over? Sorry to burst that bubble because once you get a job, all you can do is keep working until you earn enough to survive. We all have this big imaginary bubble where we think we will do a great job, earn so well and “buy” the leisure we want.

It is now time to step in to the light, when you’re a child you’re goal driven by your parents, when you’re a youth you are income driven, and when you come to that age of almost dying you get the leisure you’ve always wanted throughout your life. Let me destroy that façade as well, when you’re in that old age of you may live the next day or you won’t you’re very weak that you won’t be able to go on that hike you always wanted to. Let alone that you may not even be able to withstand long distance travelling. The analysis fits perfectly well in to most of our lives.

Loosen those reins you’ve tied around your children, they need to experience the bliss of life. Being able to dance in the rain will liberate that child, it will teach them how to enjoy the simple pleasures in life. Let them run around the neighborhood yelling ‘May Day’, it will be hilarious to even watch them having the time of their life. It is a massive arena where champions fight each other, all just to please the onlookers.

Why spend effort and time, wasting our energy and age to please everyone else other than ourselves? Many of us don’t even have the time to read the papers while sipping a cup of tea. How many times this week have you seen the sunset? The oranges and violets mixed with the blue hues, looks like a painting. Is it fair that we take away the simple pleasure and beauty in life from a child at a young age? By all means guide your little kid. Show them what is right and wrong. Tell them that they need to one day choose a lifestyle to earn a living. Yes, you read that right. Choose a lifestyle to earn. Teach them the importance of understanding what makes them excited and happy, and lead them to the path where they make the best out of their career and life.

Wealth is only a part of happiness; the other part of happiness is created by selfsatisfaction, love, confidence, dreams, goals, friendships, kindness, empathy. You see, by choosing a lifestyle you will be choosing the right amounts of all these factors to enrich your life. The right amount of money and the right amount of all the goodness in the world. It’s a developing world, we are a developing country. Now what needs to be developed is our attitude on life.

How we take on the world. Give the correct dosage of happiness to your child, and teach them to take the dosage every day. When you guide them with the blissful mindset, whatever storm may come they will withstand knowing how to enjoy simple pleasures in life. Now go join them and dance in the rain.

Devuni Goonewardene