Parents

Lifestyle Relationships
1

An old man was sitting in the courtyard of his house along with his son who had received a high education. Suddenly a crow perched on a wall of the house. The father asked the son: What is this? The son replied: It is a crow. After a little while the father again asked the son: What is this? The son said: It is a crow.

After a few minutes the father asked his son the third time: What is this? The son said: Father, I have just now told you that this is a crow. After a little while the old father again asked his son the fourth time: what is this? By this time some expression of irritation was felt in the son’s tone when he rebuffed his father: Father! It is a crow, a crow. A little after the father again asked his son: What is this? This time the son replied to his father with a vein of temper. Father: You are always repeating the same question, although I have told you so many times that it is a crow. Are you not able to understand this?

The father went to his room and came back with an old diary. Opening a page he asked his son to read what was written. What the son read were the following words written in the diary:

***’ Today my little son was sitting with me in the courtyard, when a crow came there. My son asked me twenty-five times what it was and I told him twenty-five times that it was a crow and I did not at all feel irritated. I rather felt affection for my innocent child. ’

The father then explained to his son the difference between a father’s and a son’s attitude. While you were a little child you asked me this question twenty-five times and I felt no irritation in replying to the question twenty-five times and when today I asked you the same question only five times, you felt irritated, annoyed and impatient with me.

2

That is a very nice father.
I know my parents would have gotten VERY annoyed if I had asked what it was 25 times.

3

Re: Parents

While I understand and appreciate the message that this story is trying to convey, I have a few questions/comments:

  • I am sure I acted the same way when I was a child. I don't know whether my parents got annoyed or not, they tell me the same thing how they didn't mind me asking the same question so many times, but I don't know for sure if they were mad or not.

  • There's a difference between a child asking something and a grown up asking the same thing again and again. A child's brain does not know what a crow is and has never seen it while the father knows what a crow is and has already seen it. Yes I've heard people say that when parents grow old, they are becoming "babies", but I am not sure how true that is.

  • Parents can ignore children and they don't really mind because they don't know what ignoring is and can forget and move on. On the other hand if you start ignoring your parents when they are asking the same question again and again, they know that they are being ignored and can get upset and make a big deal. So you must answer as many times as they ask the question, hence the irritation.