New trends in parenting

It is now an established fact that the average age of the population in India is 35 years and now-a-days, due to several reasons like acquiring a minimum guarantee in life due to changes in economic situation and the job opportunities, most males and females do not prefer to get married until they crossed 30 years of age. The situation up to early nineties was a bit different. There were jobs in the offing in the Public sector undertakings and Government and marriages in the age group of 28-30 years were considered to be late marriages.

There has been a sea change in the attitude of newly wed couples towards becoming parents.After marrying in the mid-thirties some couples are planning the parent hood. They are delaying the conception by two to three years because they argue that providing all sorts of stability to the new born is their motto. However old timers are rightly pointing out (more on the basis of assumption rather than on any scientific reason) that, these attitudes are the main reason for the couples finally turning out to be childless or the children born to the couples in the late thirties acquiring some congenital diseases and other life style diseases like diabetes. However, there is very little that the population can do on these aspects because, though the economic situation and the employment opportunities are finitely linked to each other, the policy matters are driven by the globalised environment and the wisdom lies in adjusting to the new environment and doing things correctly.

Due to the fact that both husband and wife are working is making miserable, the lives of the couples as well as their kids in some cases (where there is no proper support) and cozy in the rest of the cases (due to improved economic condition). In the modern times most of the Indian youth are employed in software, management and marketing sectors. The significant attribute of these three professions is that they demand long working hours and sometimes late night shifts also. These cause a detrimental effect on the day time behaviour of both sexes and their attitude towards welfare of their children. Some jocularly complain that it has been years since they last had a comfortable eight hour sleep at night. Most of them have forgotten how to relax as they left behind their favorite passions like painting, music or just playing a game of shuttle. Due to the mad rush in life it appears that even if one of the parent attempts to rekindle these passions, there will be heartburn for the other partner because the responsibility of the kid will fall entirely on her or him. Hence the parents should readily acknowledge that there should be an elbow space for relaxation in each others’ lives and should not attempt to spoil that. Therefore better understanding is the need of the hour.

The solution to this problem is that the Indian youth should try to develop better societal relations. Thus they should interact more with their neighbors and seek assistance from their parents and other family members and see that they maintain clean family relations. Then only they can carry forward their lives as well as those of their kids smoothly. Thus for a successful parenthood one should invariably follow the basic principle that” simple things should be done correctly and prioritization is the key.”

The immediate impact on the change in the attitudes of the parents: - Upon a discerning study of the new trends among the modern day parents with a wealthy background, it may be observed that there is little caning of children, more liberalized outlook, more space for freedom to the adolescent children, more exposure to new version of electronic gadgets and in some cases, extreme care bordering on obsession. Thus more and more children are getting accustomed to cozy and comfortable life and almost to the verge of not knowing the other side of the coin. This explains for the increase in adolescent crimes and perverted outlooks.

On the other hand, the middle class parents are hell bent on seeing their children becoming successful in their academic life and therefore willing to spend whatever money is available at their disposable and on occasions they are not stepping back to take big and fat loans to the extent of becoming paupers. Thus it appears wealthy people are spending recklessly on their children and middle class parents are becoming debtors mindlessly.

Lastly coming to the parents belonging to the lower strata of the society, it appears they are the real hard working people and the backbone of the country as they toil hard on the construction sites, garages, agricultural fields and offer services to the first two sections of the society. However they are unable to provide anything substantial to their children because of high cost of nutritious products, inability to be away from vices and high mortality rates .Thus one can find most of their children attending government schools and colleges and petering out into oblivion.