Parenting a social responsibility
Thirties come with various socio economic responsibilities, while one often considers parenting as a personal responsibility towards the child and family, it actually is a bigger responsibility towards the society and mankind. We might have personal reasons to extend our family but this decision of ours also impacts the society in all. In a prolonged conversation over the weekend I was once again ready to have open discussion on the trap of society and its milestones that keeps us all engaged and sometimes stretched/ stressed on various magical numbers.
While I strongly believe there is no right or wrong parenting as each parent would ideally raise a child with the best of tangible and non tangible assets, however whatever seemed fine decade(s) back in terms of parenting may not be as effective today. The morals from past have to be taught and practiced in a more rational way as the generation that we see now has evolved faster than any other generation.
Questions and practices of kids are more intelligent than innocent. The Era also brings along new learnings for set of parents. Parenting now should focus on various survival techniques for all genders. While few of them can be gender specific but mostly these techniques need to match the pace of time and modernisation which though is easily being talked about but is difficult to be practiced.
For good or bad the earlier divided gender specific responsibilities now have a big group of overlapping responsibilities which somehow need to be taught and practiced faster than the changing times.
The current and upcoming generation needs to be trained on health management and relationship management before anything else followed by failure management, resource management including wealth and opportunities. The skills of home management are sub consciously grasped by children by what they see around at house. Family members need to provide independent yet supporting environment to each other.
Trying to capture every aspect of parenting is just impossible, many of these come naturally to each parent once they start raising a child. Each year and event from birth of a child brings different learnings and surprises you. You don't grow with age, you grow with experiences.
P.S. Someone rightly mentioned a good marriage sustains kids and not vice versa.
Manisha Dawar