Khalil Gibran, the great Lebanese-American poet, said: “They (children) come through you but not from you, and though they are with you yet they belong not to you…you may give them your love but not your thoughts”.

Children have their own way of thinking. Innocent and full of life, hardly any imperfections of life will have touched them. Hence there’s a saying in Nepali that whenever a child utters something it is going to happen. It’s believed that there is divinity in children’s tongue.

I have two kids, one just seven months old. Since my wife is busy preparing for her final exams, I take the tot to his maternal uncle’s home en route to office. The sight of a young man carrying a small child indeed makes people surprised. People ask me: Where’s the mother? Where are you taking him? Can you feed him alone? This shows how much people are concerned about children. Indeed, as Gibran put it, children do not belong to us. They belong to the angels of heaven and kingdom of God.

Recently, someone asked me how was it that if there is God, countless number of innocent children die of diseases, wars and accidents every day. I fell short of an answer. But, maybe, God loves them so much that he wants them to come to him at the earliest. I find it fascinating to play with small children. Small children can’t speak, but they understand what’s happening around them. When I get home after a hectic day in office, the innocent smile of my children makes me forget all the day’s hassles.

It’s indeed disheartening to see domineering adults mistreat children. They even make the little kids do such abominable deeds like fetching them a packet of cigarette. A poor child is just expected to follow instructions of the adults without asking any questions. Elders believe they are all-knowing, while children can’t even think for themselves.

But the renowned child psychologist Adler Alfred has shown that children will have outlined most of the life plan by the time they are five. Hence, we seriously underestimate the potential of children. Little children need our guidance rather than our brusque orders. They are well capable of charting their own course if given an environment that nurtures their potential.