PARENTING, the word itself comes with lots of responsibilities, learning, research, curiosity, love, affection, fun, some not so good times and challenges.
Parenting is something which nobody has perfection on. There are somethings which work out and somethings which don’t. But we keep trying as a parent.There is no such right or wrong parenting as long as your child is your main interest. Some give parenting guidelines or rules. Let me tell you very honestly, there is no such things. Even after you become mamma for nth time, you can’t say that one specific thing has worked for your kids and believe me you keep learning the art of parenting.
It is a continuous curiosity of knowing what is the best for our kids, what they should eat, how different situations should be dealt with, what answer should you give to their weird questions and many more things.
Why? Because in today’s growing market of unhealthy items, busy schedules, competitive world, insufficient time with kids and solely relying on information from internet makes everything complex, even the parenting.
But to tell you honestly it is not complex at all. We have made it complex. There are several opinions on how you should grow up your children! What is best for them! Several toys are available on internet for boosting motor skills, cognitive skills, problem solving skills and the list goes on.
Aren’t we putting too much pressure on kids as well as parents in terms of expectation, limitations and expenses.
Have you ever imagined how 80s and 90 s kids grew up?
The very first thing that comes to my mind is keeping it simple and grounded.
Like playing outdoors, sports, participating in cultural activities that interests them, playing in sand, soil, more physical activities with friends. They would play freely.
That time, neither you needed to arrange play dates for your kids, nor buy certain toys for developing certain skills. e.g. You gave them a bicycle wheel and they came up with many creative ideas to play with it. Nowadays children go to gym to stay fit. I mean it’s good to imbibe these things in our kids early, but it shouldn’t be the only way of staying fit. We need to encourage children to play outdoors more. That’s the best way to be fit. The more they play outside the more creative, social, involved, happy they are.
Somehow, I find village kids are smarter than city kids. Because they are given space to use their creativity. Their ideas are way better than the big city kids. They are given opportunities to learn and grown on their own. No special classes on certain skills development. A child grows beautifully without boundaries.
Having said so, there are also other aspects of parenting which are not so simple. As I said, because of today’s growing technology and competitive world, everyone wants to make their kids smarter, competitive, intelligent, multitalented and the list goes on.
But have you ever thought what a child needs and wants? A child just loves to play as much as possible. They want to go outside, explore and make friends but we don’t give so much time for these. We don’t need to make them smart; they already are. We suppress it by telling them fake stories, fairy tales, every possible thing which does not exist. And make them believe in such stories. Speak to your child about the facts. yes, the true facts about things. That won’t harm their thinking capabilities rather enhance it. Answer all their questions. If you don’t know the answer then tell them, you don’t know but you will try to find the facts. It’s not necessary to know everything. That’s ok to tell them.
Now moving ahead to the next level of parenting, are we talking to them on current topics like climate change, pollution, wildlife, endangered species, local news, use of plastics. If not let’s do that. Off course in simpler words and not making it difficult to understand for them. Remember you need to repeat things. Repeating things helps a child to grasp and learn well. It’s good to show them something related to the topics instead of showing them cartoons, rhymes.
It’s our responsibility to make them self-sufficient and independent.
In this busy life, we tend to buy fascinating gifts for our kids for social status. But we forget to educate them on living.
Let’s show our kids how we earn for our livelihood, talk to them about your work, take them to your office to show where you sit, what you do, how we save for future, being social, appreciative, thankful for what we have. Trust me, these things interests them and is going to help them in the long run.
Nowadays I find baby photo contest. I personally find it weird. Can you imagine a competition among babies. These are just promotional gimmicks and are using our babies to meet their goal. there we fail as a society. what message you are giving here. And I really find parents weird who put their baby’s photo for the contest. Every single baby is precious and beautiful despite of their colour, creed, caste.
Cherish them and give them a better world.
Hope we all grow and learn along with our children!
Wish you all Happy and mindful parenting!
Love ❤and hugs🤗
@mamma_mita
Mommying-Around 