..a crab of a father..

..you know the saying about crabs trying to teach their young crablets to walk straight?....well, as a father I am a crab....on most counts, I am guilty of asking my children not to do the things that I have done..for like most fathers, I want them to be better than me...and to avoid the mistakes that I have made...and so, I told my sons not to smoke...and they countered by saying that I was a heavy smoker my self..yes, I was, it has not done me any good except to wheeze in my old age...I told them not to miss their daily solat..and they say, papa started praying only in his late years..and I said, yes, and it has not done me any good, either...I told them to be choosy about choosing life partners..and they say papa was a polygamist..and I say, I do not want you to be one...I told the girls not to go after married men..and they say mama married one...it hit me that I have done all those things that I asked them not to..I am that proverbial crab...and this old, wheezing crab realised that no matter how much he loved his children, there is a limit to his exhortations...life is not about not doing this and not doing that...life is about making mistakes and learning from it...sometimes its about learning from others mistakes...for a father will continue loving his children no matter the mistakes...

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