The night before his chemistry boards, Seema found her son staring at his textbook, eyes vacant. The formulas that should have been memorised by now were foreign symbols on the page. When she asked him a simple question about his preparation, his silence was deafening.
"How could you not know this?" Her voice rose with each word. "The exam is tomorrow!"
She had heard from his teachers all year—distracted, underperforming, not living up to his potential. The frustration of months condensed into a moment of blind anger.
The sound of her palm against his cheek echoed in the small room.
Time froze. In his eyes, she saw not defiance but fear and panic. Her brilliant boy, who once explained the periodic table to her with childlike excitement when he was in class 10th, now sat broken before chemistry formulas he couldn't grasp.
"I'm trying, Mom, mujhse nahi ho raha!!" he whispered, a tear sliding down the reddening mark she’d left. That night, she couldn't sleep. What had she missed? When did his confidence crumble? Why hadn't she noticed his struggles earlier instead of adding to them?
The exam came and went. He passed, barely. But something had fractured between them —a trust, a safety that children should feel with their parents.
She apologised. Many times. He nodded and said it was okay, but there remained some unspoken words between them. It took months of patience. Of sitting beside him during study sessions without judgment. Of learning about anxiety and how it can paralyse even the brightest minds. Of finding a tutor who recognised his learning style. Of finally listening instead of demanding.
Today, he is an adult, he's finding his way. Not the path she had envisioned, but his own. The memory of that night still haunts them both—a moment when frustration overcame understanding, when fear replaced support.
But it also became their turning point. A painful reminder that our children need our patience most when they seem to deserve it least. Behind every academic struggle is a child trying to navigate pressures we adults sometimes forget were once overwhelming to us, too.
The echo of that slap fades a little more each day, replaced by conversations, by new understanding, and by the promise to herself:
Never again will she mistake his struggle for failure.
