My next door neighbors are a joint family. The elder son has one child and the younger son has two children. Every day without fail, I can hear the children, especially the younger ones crying and the mother who is a rather young female, not more than 24 herself, getting frustrated with them. The kids are in the age range 2 to 5 I think. I know Parenting and singularly managing kids that young along with the household demands can be menacingly frustrating, but there are often times when I have wanted to just get up and ask her to control herself or may be preach about, how corporal punishment is not the best way.
But I have my days, when my patience goes for a toss and my children have to bear the brunt. What happens in that moment when a mother just looses it.. her wrath making her kids easiest of victims. I think its more of the pent up frustration, an amalgam of frustration, helplessness and resultant anger.
I think it is the pent up frustration that women have inside of them that finds its way in form of a outburst on the only living beings that she can get her hands on. Not questioning or justifying the outburst, but very often the children especially young ones in our houses are the only ones who are willing to take the wrath. The adults of the house are either unwilling or do not care. Adults have their own issues and well the woman of the house in the patriarchy is the smallest unit with the husband and in-laws and the 'samaj' forming the upper echelons..
Then comes the kids; A woman's sole proprietary, unfortunately. I know children are not some things to be possessed but the kind of possessiveness a mother has toward her children; often comes from the sense of territory. Children of the house and mother's territory. And in her territory the woman can reign, the way she wants. She is the queen. and sometimes the Queen decides to unleash her wrath on her subjects a.k.a children mostly young ones, because by the time kids reach preteens they are already on the verge of revolt. However this queen also is very very protective of her subjects; so much so that she will not let any one including the father of children, touch or scold the child. Her subjects or children in this case are her responsibility and it is only she who holds the ultimately authority.
A mother always without fail, protects her children sometimes from her own anger, frustration and irritation. The queen in her own territory, who so often does everything to fiercely protect her young ones can also feel weak and weighed down after she unleashes her rage. Her children are her strength and her biggest weakness. Making them suffer is something that no mother can see.
And yet the territory prevail, unsaid, unchallenged....
But I have my days, when my patience goes for a toss and my children have to bear the brunt. What happens in that moment when a mother just looses it.. her wrath making her kids easiest of victims. I think its more of the pent up frustration, an amalgam of frustration, helplessness and resultant anger.
I think it is the pent up frustration that women have inside of them that finds its way in form of a outburst on the only living beings that she can get her hands on. Not questioning or justifying the outburst, but very often the children especially young ones in our houses are the only ones who are willing to take the wrath. The adults of the house are either unwilling or do not care. Adults have their own issues and well the woman of the house in the patriarchy is the smallest unit with the husband and in-laws and the 'samaj' forming the upper echelons..
Then comes the kids; A woman's sole proprietary, unfortunately. I know children are not some things to be possessed but the kind of possessiveness a mother has toward her children; often comes from the sense of territory. Children of the house and mother's territory. And in her territory the woman can reign, the way she wants. She is the queen. and sometimes the Queen decides to unleash her wrath on her subjects a.k.a children mostly young ones, because by the time kids reach preteens they are already on the verge of revolt. However this queen also is very very protective of her subjects; so much so that she will not let any one including the father of children, touch or scold the child. Her subjects or children in this case are her responsibility and it is only she who holds the ultimately authority.
A mother always without fail, protects her children sometimes from her own anger, frustration and irritation. The queen in her own territory, who so often does everything to fiercely protect her young ones can also feel weak and weighed down after she unleashes her rage. Her children are her strength and her biggest weakness. Making them suffer is something that no mother can see.
And yet the territory prevail, unsaid, unchallenged....
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