Give Me Some Sunshine,Give Me Some Pain

If little labour, little are our gains:
Man's fortunes are according to his pains. - Robert Herrick (Hesperedis)

It is a natural tendency of parents to protect their children from potential danger and pain. There is no harm in safeguarding one’s child. But the problem becomes grave when parents treat their children as fragile entities and attempt to preserve them with cotton wool. This kind of treatment is bound to be transitory. Once the child steps into the hostility of the big bad world he begins to quiver. The obsessive parental protection, the smooth life and the bed of roses, that he has been accustomed to, turn out to be one huge illusion. It then truly becomes difficult for the child to cope and adjust with the thorns of life. Without experience and without proper understanding the child remains a dilettante forever in the uphill journey of life.
It is important to struggle. It is important fall. It is essential to confront obstacles. Life is the best tutor. A child can never learn to walk unless he falls and hurts himself. Similarly a kid will never understand the intricacies of practical life unless he counters a certain amount of difficulty on his own. Assistance from parents is always welcome, but dictation and direction damages the child’s self confidence. The period of “growing up” is analogous to the internship. As an intern learns his work, facing adversities, failures, obstacles and even humiliation in order to become a foolproof professional, so must a child learn to accept pains, odds, impediments and even a bit of danger in order to become an independent individual who is ready for the race called “life”.
Parents should not enchain their kids with shackles of extravagant care. Care, concern, protection and security are essential, but equally important ingredients of growing up are scraped knees, bruised elbows and the taste of defeat. If a man does not know how firm the ground is he will never be able to walk. And the firmness of the ground can only be discerned when a person tumbles and falls on it. Pain is intrinsic to human being. And experiencing the pain is the best way of overcoming it. It is not possible to learn how to adapt with adversities in a later stage of life, it is best learnt when one is young and impressionable. Maturity of a human being is like the growth of a tree. A tree, which counters all the onslaughts of weather, is the one which has the deepest roots. A man becomes stable, unprejudiced, and enduring when he is instilled with the awareness of pain from the very childhood.
Oscar Wilde Says- “Who wants a Cynic who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing?” A child who had a hassle-free childhood full of redundant care and superfluous protection ultimately grows up into a cynic, who stumbles against every step of his existence. He never learns to adapt, never learns to forgive, and never learns to compete. In every challenging situation he waits with an imbecile air of helplessness in order to be salvaged by some stroke of miracle. Therefore growing pains are not only important but they are necessary for a child to develop into a beautiful flower blooming with the fragrances of intellect, independence and determination.