Sunday, November 2, 2008

Tit for Tat


A couple of days back my 10 year old daughter T came running to me.
“Mamma”, she screamed.
“What happened T?”
“Mamma you know what? That A has hacked into my account. She is really mean.”
T has an account with some site for little girls. They get to choose a buddy and play various games to earn points. With those points they can buy accessories for their buddy-clothes, shoes, makeup, household stuff etc etc. She is hooked to the site and so are many of her friends.

T please! I am not interested in your stupid buddies.”
“Mammma but you know what A did? She hacked my account! She has spent all my hard earned points and bought very expensive dresses for my buddy. Imagine 2000 for one small dress! (I was thrilled! Good ,my daughter values money-even if it is virtual!). And she sold Tia`s (her buddy) clothes and accessories in a yard sale. And now Tia wears a horrible purple dress with dirty, soggy, hairy boots. She looks Yuck!”
I grinned. “It`s ok T.”
“No its not. How would you feel if someone did that to your child? “She demanded tearfully.
I realized that this was really important to her. I sat and asked her why was she so upset.
“You can earn the points back”, I told her gently.
“Do you know how much I have to work for it? It`s not easy. Come and see my Tia”,said T .
We went to the site and sure her Tia and her surroundings were in shambles. I got enraged too. How dare anyone do that to my dear T. I fumed and seethed.
“How did she hack? Did you tell her your password?”,I screamed.
“Yes. All my friends share their passwords”, said T in all innocence.
“Well Rule no.1 -you should never ever tell your password to anyone”, I said firmly.
“Not even your best friend?
“No. No one.”
“Not even Mamma?”
“Well Mammas should be told everything.”I stressed.
“Ok”. (How long will this implicit trust long, I sometimes wonder)
“Well, let`s try to change your password.”
But to our dismay there was no such option! You could however change your account and get a new buddy.
“No I want Tia only”, grumbled T.
I tried to convince her but she stood her ground.
“Ok, Tit for tat then. You know A`s password right. Now you, spoil her buddy. Let her get a taste of her own medicine.”
T was excited and went about her destructing spree gleefully.
Later at night she came and rattled off a list of things she had done. “I organized a yard sale and sold her buddy`s sofa, bed, jacket, fur boots etc. I made her buddy wear the old, soggy ,hairy boot!”.We both laughed heartily.
Just as she got up she said,” You know Mammma after all this I feel sad for A.”
I was taken aback for a second but soon forgot about it as got busy with my own things.
Yesterday T called out ,” Mamma come see my new buddy –Susan.”
“New buddy! How come?”
“Mamma I felt bad for A. I didn’t like it when she acted mean to me. Even she would have felt bad no? And if I also behave like her, then what is the difference between her and me?And you know what? She called this morning and said sorry. So I told her let us stop doing all this. We both are losing our pretty things and points. She agreed. So no more fighting! And now I have 2 buddies!”.
I looked at her beaming face and hung my head in shame.

ps.. If only we and our leaders would learn from this simple incident and stop our hate tirades ,the world would be so beautiful!

picture courtsey-toys.about.com

16 comments:

Mampi said...

Very touching, very beautifully written conversation and your parenthetical observations too. While it was a beautiful insight into her psychology and her basic goodness as a child, it is definitely a great message for all of us to be sensitive to others' needs.
Thanks for sharing.

Sandhya said...

Beautiful post. We missed your posts, really.

Keep blogging!

Iya said...

thats true.. there are lessons we adults can learn from children.. if all of us feel and behave like your daughter did, world wud be so much better...

P.s: came here via your comment on IHM's blog...

Sunshine said...

Aww ur daughter is adorable! It really is amazing! The pearls of wisdom that kids can come up with...

Glad that your back to blogging! :)

Reflections said...

Ur daughter has a sensible head on her shoulders. U must be so proud!!!

How do we know said...

wow! you tell a simple story also really well.

my space said...

@mampi..your prompt response is always welcome..yes I think so too..kids are a storehouse of wisdom.
@Sandhya :-)
@iya...thanx for dropping by:-)
@sunshine , reflection..is that why they say that child is the father of man?
@hdwk..:-)

RAJESH said...

Thanks a lot...
i have added more info on hacking at my blog:

http://rajeshhackingarticles.blogspot.com

Just check it out...

Bhai with Chai said...

how beautiful!
:)
and that's exactly what children are too.. beautiful and amazingly innocent..
and these days, they've got amazing brains !

reallly liked the incident!


/Not even Mamma?”
“Well Mammas should be told everything.”I stressed.

CUTE mamma! :)

D said...

Very sweet post, indeed.

I'm not a parent yet, but from my observations I know that children learn not so much from what we "tell" them as much as from what they "see" around them. You can lecture your child as much as you want on what's right and what's wrong but they are mere words till they don't imbibe it from their surroundings.

Like Reflections said, your daughter has a wise head on her shoulders. And I think the credit for that should go to you.

Renu said...

Congrats:) u r bringing up ur daughter with good values.

Indian Home Maker said...

Hey this was good ... sometimes we are trapped into situations where we do not know what to do! Guess sometimes we can take advise from our children. What else could you/she have done? Maybe tell her to talk to her friend and discuss what might happen if everyone started doing what she did??

my space said...

@bhai wth chai :-)

@d..sorry cant take the credit..have lots to learn from my little one!

@renu..am trying to but sometimes it gets difficult..our love (moh in hindi) blinds and colours our reactions ..as in this case..

@IHM..hmm but you see revenge is sweet and though I myself may not have done it but I was so bugged to see her so sad that I just wanted to lash back..typical of me but thank God for the innate goodness and innocence in children :-)

Nisha said...

T has gone on R/A i guess!!! And hows C doing???lol...its so funny to use these initials!

Salomie said...

Reflections recently did a post on one of her daughters, and reading this post, I am again struck by how smart children are. And I just remembered a saying that goes sort of like this: maturity has nothing to do with how many candles you blow out on your birthday cake, and everything to do with your experiences in life. Your daughter sounds immensely mature already :)

J P Joshi said...

'Tit for Tat' title does not do justice to the lesson that the tit for tat incident taught an adult like me. Hats off to your daughter!!! May her tribe grow by the millions amongst us adults.