I remember the time I was three. I had joined two of my friends (all brothers) to their home on their invitation. My friends then were four and two. On walking into their sittingroom, I realized that their father had just slapped their mother and she was crying. My friends were not as shocked as I was. The older one just sighed and looked defeated while the younger one ran to grab his father’s leg in protestation against the physical beating their mother had just received in the hands of their father.

I didn’t think much about it, but when I became older, the picture of the physical assault became clearer to me.

Parents have always taken their much tender children to be having tabula rasa and therefore would not understand the goings on around them. But that is no longer so. I have used myself as a test. I do recollect events of the past – most especially those ones that happened when I was less than five.

Mind what you do before your children. They are all eyes because they are young, when they become older, they will become ears after putting one and two together. It will definitely tell them what you were doing on those days. This is most appropriate for parents who make noise while making love in their matrimonial beds.

Use of foul languages and words while your children are around spells doom for them. Learn to be conscious of your children’s innocence and don’t pollute them while they are still young. This is where the nature-nurture controversy comes in. Everybody keeps thinking about how once godly children ended up becoming rapists, serial philanderers and killers without actually digging into the character’s family background.

What our children end up becoming is usually what we have always been. We led the way and they followed dutifully only that they raised the tempo. Now, you have learnt enough to be conscious of the delicate nature of your children at home around you.