#Mothers and #teachers most underrated personalities

Today 10th May coincidentally is #MothersDay as well as the culmination of #TeacherAppreciationWeek . Also they are the most important and indispensable personalities in the world . Infact during these Coronovirus days , mothers and teachers are the most overworked apart from the government officials , health professionals, sanitation workers and army . The rest may have lauded as Corona Warriors but the mothers and teachers silently continue to serve . They never get their due . 

Let’s talk of mothers first .

Probably the skill required in managing a family and the home and sometimes work too is probably the most dynamic. The Mother has a special ability to understand, empathise and fulfil the needs of the family members , many a times out of her own initiative.

She has this uncanny ability to balance roles and still finds out time to enquire about people close to the family or friends . In this COVID 19 pandemic and the lockdown , when we are stuck at home , we see and wonder how she manages the chores at home while the others might chip in here and there . This is actually a time of realisation for us that we take mothers for granted and at times even comment on the lack of work at home and how they waste the whole day . This lockdown is a time when we have been able to see the effort they put in the whole day . As husbands and children , we demand tea or other snacks at odd times which might not have been a part of her schedule , but she uncomplainingly puts in that extra effort to fulfil these demands , thereby stretching herself . Children at home as they grow up tend to ignore the mother and her warnings . But her love for them makes her persist as she continues to warn of any wrongdoings . Add to it the fact that mothers very often are the ones involved in the parent teachers meetings , coordination with school , homework, etc while the men avoid all these . It’s a humongous physical and mental strain on the lady of the house to do all this and still have that smile on .The teacher is someone who gets a kick out of imparting knowledge to the children in front of her . In the lockdown , teachers who are known to be laggards in technology have taken the initiative to adopt it and face the challenge head on and they have started engaging them online . This effort is itself a phenomenal and exemplary one . I have seen during annual functions especially for smaller children , the teachers hide behind the curtains and dance and the children on stage look at them and perform. At the end of the performance, the applause goes to the kids and the teacher goes unnoticed. The fact of the matter is , that this teacher would not even dance at home but she does it for her class and not bother about anything else . Sometimes the teachers’ words are more important for the children overpowering the authority of the parents .

This is because parents do not have the guts these days to give a straight feedback to children so the onus is on the teacher to do it and call a spade a spade . But any such discipline enforced by the teacher has to bear the brunt of anger by the parents during the PTMs . Anything good that happens to the students in their life , the parents take ownership and the teacher is again left in the lurch . It’s therefore high time that these two silent performers and character builders of the next generation are given their due . We realise how important their contributions have been but by then we have become parents and we also act the same way with our teachers and as mothers we face the same neglect as we had . So appreciate the contributions of mothers and teachers , we will need to respect them and feel grateful then and there . These are also during this pandemic, our invisible #coronawarriors .