Short Stories For Kids: A Hole In The Fence




How well can you deal with your anger issues? Read on to find out how you can overcome anger

Short Stories For Kids: A Hole In The Fence

Once upon a time, in a very small village lived a little boy with his parents. He was the only child of his parents. The little boy had temper issues. He was very bad-tempered and this made his parents sad and depressed.
He would taunt his friends with hurtful words and get angry quickly once they retaliated. It was so bad that he scolded kids, shouted at neighbors and even quarreled with some of his friends due to his bad temper. Many people avoided him, and this troubled his father and mother very much.

His parents on numerous occasions tried to talk him out of his bad-temper and how he could become a kind, polite and lovable person. All their efforts failed.
“I have an idea on how to solve our child’s temper issue,” the father said one day to the mother.

The next day, the boy’s father handed him a bag of nails. “Whenever you get angry and lose your temper my son, hammer one nail to the fence,” the father said to him. It pleased the boy and he accepted the offer.

On the first day, his anger drove him to hammer 30 nails into the fence. He wasn’t ready yet to let go of his anger. Some days passed, the number of nails hammered into the fence reduced to half. He wasn’t finding the task of hammering nails into the fence as amusing as he had thought. So, he decided to control his anger.

Slowly, the number of nails hammered into the fence got reduced and a day came when no nail was hammered into the fence. He kept his cool for several days and did not lose his temper. No nail was hammered during those days.

One day, the boy’s father told him to go and remove all the nails he hammered into the fence when he was angry. The boy was able to pull some of the nails out after several days, but few nails remained on the fence because he couldn’t pull them out.

The boy reported the case to the father. The father applauded and thanked him for his efforts.

“What do you see here?” his father said pointing to a hole on the fence.

“A hole in the fence,” the boy replied.

The father then said, “your bad tempers are the nails and the wall you hammered, the people you used your anger on. You were able to remove some of the nails but you couldn’t close the holes made on them. The fence will never be the same again. There are scars all over it. You were not able to pull out some of the nails. You can hurt a man with a knife, and say sorry later, but the scar will be there for years. Words are more hurtful than physical abuse if not properly used. Your anger and bad temper were like that; a lot of people were hurt with your words. Use your words to build and grow relationships, lift people's spirit, show kindness and love and not to hurt people.”

Be mindful of the words you say. You might be hurting someone unknowingly. Never let anger get the better part of you. 

We hope you learnt something useful from this short story for kids

Remember to drop your comments and viewpoints below. We hope to see you again for more beautiful stories.

See also:

The Devoted Mother

A Glass Of Milk

 


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