I had my first child in 2006 and my second in 2008,and the younger years were a breeze. My oldest became a teenager in 2019,but it wasn’t until the pandemic of 2020 that I began seeing the signs of teenagehood starting to emerge for both my children.
Holy book:one of many versions of the Koran.Ben Rushton
They went through the classic challenges of becoming teenagers while coping with the complexities of a global pandemic,where their social interactions were limited,access to mental health support was minimal,exposure to health and fitness opportunities was inadequate,and normality as we knew it altered literally overnight.
My children suffered,and it took me weeks,months and embarrassingly perhaps years to understand what was happening to them. From angry outbursts to withdrawing to their room and not coming out for days,to visits to the emergency rooms and subsequent medication,to poor academic performance,we saw it all. My husband and I were at a loss. We held fast to the support we were able to access,but our children kept telling us it was not helping,it was not enough. We prayed,and we supplicated and implored for help while shedding tears for their wellbeing.
It was then I remembered the verse in the Holy Koran about children as trial. When the people we love the most in this world suffer,we feel their pain in the most acute sense yet are helpless in what we can do to alleviate their suffering.
In the mundanity of daily life,we usually forget to offer gratitude for our blessings,but when we are faced with challenges,we complain. The test is that we remain grateful in the trying times.
It’s been four years since the pandemic started. I don’t know whether it has ended;the lines are blurry. But we have come a long way. It is truly a joy to see my children emerge from the darkness and into the light,to see how much progress they have made,and now to see them smile is a testament of resilience and prayers.
These smiles are so much more meaningful,so much more precious. They are momentous reminders of what life is all about. Perhaps it is due to the challenges we went through as a family that we can now appreciate the metamorphosis to the other side.
Naureen Choudhry’s efforts in promoting intercultural and interfaith harmony earned her a Victorian Governor’s Award in 2018.
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