FAMILY MATTERS
Guiding My Child and My Child Teaing Me: How Moving to Qatar Changed My Parenting By Leena Bathia
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rowing up in the 1980s as a BritishIndian brought up by immigrant parents, I experienced a traditional upbringing. I was raised with a rather authoritative parenting style. So, I strived to be the perfect child to be considered worthy. I yearned to be accepted and subconsciously mastered how to be the model child. As I grew into an adult, this led me to feel a little lost and sometimes suffocated. Despite that, a single heartstring would always pull me towards connecting to and learning something creative and
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new—something from my childhood that I never fully explored. This yearning was so strong I tried to follow it, whatever the circumstances, without realising what was unfolding. Years later, I realised that my heart was signalling to me subtle messages, and my true self was desperate to be free and live a more aligned life. Leaning into those cues would change how I saw the world and eventually parented, and moving to Qatar was instrumental to that process.
