September - October 2018
Vol 8 - Issue 2 - `100
The Indian Way of Life FOR CHILDREN AND PARENTS Pg 08
COMMUNICATE BETTER WITH YOUR CHILD! Pg 18
Unusual
WIN A GIFT VOUCHER FROM DECATHLON WORTH RS. 1000 DETAILS INSIDE! Pg
GIFT IDEAS FOR CHILDREN Pg 34
Waste Not, Want Not!
PRACTISE BETTER CONSUMPTION WITH YOUR CHILD Pg 38
Yoga and the Art of Modern Day Parenting Pg 46 LIFESKILLS - GOALSETTING Pg 28 BOOK REVIEWS Pg 25
DECODING SCIENCE AT HOME Pg 42
ASK THE EXPERT - PARENTING QUERIES ANSWERED Pg 22
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Cover Story
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September - October 2018
Cover Story
Prabhat Mandal, founder of Magicc in Parenting, has been involved in helping parents become more confident in making choices as well as empowering them to spend quality time spent with their children. Over 12 years, he has trained and coached several thousands of parents.
There are many shifts that we have seen in last few decades in the way children see life around them. These days children do not ask for laddu and rasagulla, they ask for doughnuts instead. Children have more affinity towards Spiderman and Pokemon than Hanuman. Likewise, Hollywood movies are preferred to narration of grandma’s stories. Children do not know the problems faced by people in the neighbourhood but are up to date on the latest gadgets released. Availability of information thanks to internet connectivity and resources due to prosperity are no doubt the most influential factors.While it is healthy to learn from other cultures, what many parents are concerned about is the devaluing, in children’s minds and hearts, of all that is Indian. What does an Indian way of life really mean? How do we imbibe this, both for ourselves and our children? Read on. September - October 2018
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Everyday Parenting
Kichu Krishnan is an entrepreneur and a partner in a social organisation. His life passion is coaching and mentoring individuals for better communication, productivity and happiness. Kichu’s workshops have helped over 65000 individuals in the last 35 years.
Communicating
WITH CHILDREN
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Everyday Parenting
Are there signs of good communication between the parent and the child? Are there signs of poor communication between the parent and the child?
A sign that a good communication channel exists between the parent and the child is when the child feels comfortable talking about difficult things. For example, something unacceptable that the child did at school for which the teacher reprimanded her, being bullied, etc. Another sign is the child sharing narratives about her day – what happened at school, or what she did with friends during play time in the evening. The child may also share instances from her friends’ lives – when one of them was scolded by a parent. Interestingly, when communication thrives between the parent and the child, the child’s friends too feel comfortable in that home’s environment, and are open and relaxed. This is another positive sign. A sign of poor communication is silence from the child. After coming home from school, the child may prefer to be in her room with a gadget or stay in front of the television. Or the child may appear to lack of energy, expressing that she is very tired. The child may spend long hours on the telephone, finding it easier to open up and connect to a friend rather than the parents. Essentially, home is no longer a place that offers comfort and solace to recharge after a day outside. One may ask, don’t all adolescents go through this phase when they prefer to be alone rather than with the family? There is a difference. While pre-teens and teens may want their own space and want to be by themselves for short stretches, minimal talk with the parents is definitely not healthy. This is a sign that the youngsters feel they are not heard right, and hence do not talk. 19
September - October 2018
What are the hurdles to good communication between parent and child?
All the hurdles are within parents. Parents often don’t really listen, instead they ignore, advice, tell stories ‘When I was your age…’, criticise, compare ‘Your friend scores more than you’. When the child starts to share something, parents often compare their own childhood to the child’s and begin to offer their wisdom. This puts off the child as we are unknowingly sending a message that the child’s own experiences do not matter and that her experiences are misplaced and that her opinions do not matter. Kahlil Gibran says ‘Children are adults in small bodies’. When we do not give children the space to express fully, we are unconsciouly sending out the message ‘You are only a child’. This makes them clam up – when an individual is made to feel that he or she is wrong, silence is often the result. As a parent ask yourself “ Am I a safe person to talk to?”
Parents often don’t really listen, instead they ignore, advice, tell stories ‘When I was your age…’, criticise, compare ‘Your friend scores more than you’.
Waste Not, Want Not
- HOW TO SENSITISE YOUNG CHILDREN ABOUT BETTER CONSUMPTION
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Young Parents Corner
“It’s only one straw” – said 8 billion people
Meena Sivaraman is an early childhood development specialist. Amishi Parasrampuria She runs Bright Vistas, is founder of Upcycler’s a chain corporate day Lab, anof organisation care With rich thatcentres. creates learning tools and programmes on experience in the holistic sustainability for parents enrichment of children’s and schools. Upcycler’s Lab intellect during their uses play based learning, formative years, is storytelling, craftsMeena and songs a firm believer in involved, to teach waste management to young children below the hands-on parenting. age of nine.
Research studies have found that an individual in India generates between 200 and 870 gms of waste per day. Now imagine what this figure would look like, if we compute for 1.2 billion people and 365 days of the year! Countries such as the United States of America, generate far more waste. If the world’s entire population (8 billion of us!) continue to live this way, we will have no planet to live on. We are already facing severe repercussions of our thoughtless actions - tonnes of plastic waste washing up on our shores, animals and fish dying because of plastic pollution and overflowing landfills in many parts of the world. At this juncture, we need to take a step back to understand what causes this waste in the first place.
The origin of avoidable waste According to the dictionary, waste is unwanted or unusable material, substance, or a by-product. So an outgrown piece of clothing or a toy are also categorised as waste. You may recall many other things that emerge as ‘waste’ in our day to day life, things that are perfectly useful but those that we don’t need anymore, are often thrown away. In India, we are accustomed to giving our old clothes and books to those who are needy. However, there are many things that we throw away when they can be easily reused. We often throw away clothes that have tears or stains on them instead of cleaning, repairing or upcycling them. We throw away toys and electronics that are broken instead of taking the trouble to get them repaired. These situations can be learning 39
September - October 2018
instances for our children; during these moments if we open a fresh dialogue and help them identify alternate ways to deal with waste, we will be redefining what waste is, for the next generation.
An approach to responsible consumption Over the years, our consumption patterns have also moved more and more towards the disposal mentality. This can largely be attributed to growing disposable incomes and nuclear families where both parents are working. As a community we now value convenience above all else, but at what cost? Just one generation ago, our parents took grains to the mill to get it freshly ground and the resulting atta that came out of it was stored in our own steel container that we took to the grinder
Spotlight
Yoga
and the Art of Modern Day Parenting
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