Maturity Is When You Realize..

I am very thankful to God that I am born in a very loving family where my parents love me and my sisters care for me. As a child I was always happy because I thought that I have got everything in life, I have parents to look after me and my sisters to play with me.

As the third born in the family, I have two elder sisters and they always played with me, I was the most lucky child. Everything was so good, my life was perfect, I couldn't expect anything much from life because according to me I had everything.

But as I was growing a few things were changing. The mother I saw every day smiling at me was now hardly having any smile on her face. The father who always came home with a bright smile from his work, was having no smile at all.

These changes seemed not good to me. I did not like it because I wanted to see them happy always, I wanted to see my parents happy. I wanted them to smile but I don’t know what was wrong with my mother and father but noone was happy.

As I kept growing I realized that, people don't smile often and that was something I wanted to change for my family. And the most easy thing I can do for my family was to do as they say. I was the innocent child, I thought if I will do as my mother tells me to do she will be happy with me.

And that is when I decided that I will do whatever my parents will ask me to do only because I wanted them to be happy. It might sound odd but yes to me my family was everything and my happiness was nothing in front of their happiness.

As I tried all the possible things to make them happy, still nothing was changing my parents did not smile and there was rarely any event at which they had a smile. I was becoming helpless, the thing I wanted was not happening.

I was around twelve at that time, when I saw something which changed the way I thought about my family. That was the first time I saw something like that, my father was hitting my mother. As a child I never saw any violence in my life neither my sisters neither my mother or my father ever hit me, but what was this.

My mother was crying and my father was hitting her and I was the one witnessing all the abuse. I started crying because of the fears and that's when my father stopped and he went into his room. I went to my mother and helped her get up though I was not able to help since I as not hat strong.

Some moments later after that abuse I asked my mother why were you not fighting, why would you just allow him hitting you and that's when my mother told me, your father is a good man he was just slightly angry with me and that's why he hit me. My mother repeated herself she said your father is a very good man.

Few days after that incident I asked my mother, what if my husband will do the same to me like father did to you,and she confidently said, why would anybody hit my precious daughter. I asked my mother, you are also one very precious daughter of your father then how can somebody hit you. My mother said your dad was just a little angry with me that’s why he did hit me otherwise he never did.

She asked me to forget that incident, but it was something which I cannot forget and will never be able to. I asked my mother what if my husband also gets angry at me and hits me like father hit you then what and that’s when my mother said don't let him ever hit you, and I said why did you let your husband hit you and that's when she tells her story, that her mother was also was beaten by her husband and she never raised a voice and neither a hand at him and my mother's mother which means my grandmother taught my mother to never raise a voice or hand at your husband because that is disrespect towards your husband.

My mother was taught to stay quiet though she was angry. My mother wanted to raise her voice, my mother wanted to raise her hand but she couldn’t because her mother never took a stand and never told her to take a step against violence.

But my mother taught me that day to never ever allow anybody to hit you, she taught me to stand against violence , she taught me violence was not accepted. And the way I thought about my family that it was very happy loving kind all that changed, the family I was proud of, I was not proud anymore.

And maturity to me was realizing that changes are mandatory, the image I had in my mind of my family was wrong or I can say it was fabricated.