When I was almost 5 years old going to Kindergarten in Hong Kong, my mom was surprised to see a red welt on my left cheek. She asked me and a little girl from my class about it and we told her that my teacher had pinched my cheek for me being naughty and talking too much in class.
Let me digress to explain my mom to you so you understand why this event stands out in my mind and what an amazing person my mom was despite all of the challenges life threw her way. My mom has a 4th grade education from India. Her family needed her to help at home so that was what she did. She learned how to speak, read, and write English herself. We were very poor and living in a very foreign place for Indians and in 1975 when this happened, you did not act the way she did.
My mom's eyes grew wide and she grabbed my hand and ran us both up the stairs to the second floor and started banging at the locked classroom door. The teacher asked who it was and my mom said:
"I am Sanjay's mother and I am going to kill you for laying a hand on him!"
The door did not open and my mom called the police and filed a report. This was after 20 parents and kids gathered to see what was happening and the teacher was screaming frantically for help. The teacher may still be hiding behind that classroom door for all I know- she was that scared. Of course I couldn't go back to that school and my mom's temper has put me in awkward situations subsequent to this example, but there is force more powerful on earth than someone who is willing to risk anything for their family. Insane maybe, but powerful yes.
My children have seen this in me when they are wronged and I hope they understand that fighting for what is right, decent, and fair is not just something you read about in textbooks. Fighting for your rights sometimes requires actual physical fighting.
Read other answers by Sanjay Sabnani on Quora:
- What do parents miss most about when their children were younger?
- At what point do you start talking to and treating your children like adults?
- My 15-year-old daughter told me she was "disappointed" in me as a mother. What should I do?
from Quora http://ift.tt/294gEMx
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