Questioner: When parents are in conflict, what happens to the child? What is the impact on the child? And how can the parents help the child be a healthy adult in the future?
Acharya Prashant: It’s a double calamity. You see, first of all, there is this basic thing regarding company. Let’s say there is only one child. So, there are three people: the man, the woman, and their child. The child has the company of the man and the woman. The man and the woman constitute, let’s say, fifty to eighty percent of the child’s company. Except for the neighboring playground and the school he goes to, who is the one who provides him company? These two, the man and the woman.
So, it is these two that he principally got for company. And if you are in the company of two people who are always fighting, what effect will it have on your mind? Forget that those two people are your parents—any two people. If you are in a railway coach, and that too in an enclosed cabin, with two fellow passengers, and it’s just a journey, let’s say, ten hours long, and those two people are constantly squabbling, constantly, what would it do to you?
Questioner: It would be very irritating and frustrating.
Acharya Prashant: If you are very patient, you will try to sleep. If you are a little less patient, you will try to calm them down. If you know even lesser patience, you will pull the chain. And if you are totally fed up, you may as well not decide to wait till the next station!
