We are Choosing to be Second-time Parents, Despite How “Hard” It Is

We need to talk about the good parts of parenting

The Maverick Files
5 min readDec 9, 2022

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Collage of beautiful moments with my son — image belongs to author

We went over to a little parent-teacher’s day this past weekend. A teacher who wasn’t one of our son’s class teachers recognized our son and stopped to tell us a story.

Our son is four and goes to kindergarten.

They base their learning on “emotions-based teaching” and that to some is a novel concept.

A reporter, apparently, had visited the school a few days back to understand what that even meant.

He asked what emotions-based learning was and how and why did the school think it worked?

Just then, our son happened to be the first kid they choose to “interview” or explore the impact of the methodology.

The reporter asked him a simple question that each kid at the school is asked every morning.

The question is simple “how do you feel this morning?”

And the children are free to choose from 6 icons of different feelings – three positive emotions and three negative ones.

Our son chose he felt loved, and per the teacher that is what he chooses every single day.

He didn’t just say that but went on to hug everyone present there, including the reporter.

Every kid after him followed his example.

The reporter told the teacher, that she had gotten her answer and needed no more explaining.

The teacher told us how she was glad the reporter picked Naman, because admittedly according to her that was just his nature and had little to do with their learning methodology.

My wife teared up a little as I tried to hide back my own happy tears.

We felt like we had raised a child who felt loved every morning – more than anything we could have asked for.

Parenting is often talked about as a “hard thing”

I get the general idea behind being well-intentioned and warning others against the dangers of something you have gone through, so they don’t have to.

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The Maverick Files

Thinker, finance professional, loving husband, a doting dad, fitness enthusiast! MBA in Finance & Marketing and Comp. Science Engineer. www.themaverickfiles.com