The Art of Parenting

The art of parenting has undergone sea-changes in this ICE-age. Today, I don’t believe that, the children consider the parents as role models and as a result hardly emulate them. May be, this is partly true in the present context that they emulate their screen heroes and heroines more than ever before. Even the cartoons have whopping fan-following. Today’s children appreciate the media gimmicks thanks to the over-information imposed on them by the visual media. Their thinking patterns, aptitudes, social mores etc are not governed by the parents but by the electronic media and the gifted copy-writers. So much so that one Marathi satirist once commented that for today’s Indian kids “Maruti” is not the revered lord but a leading automobile brand dominating the Indian roads. For some impressionable children, selected motifs and names can identified and associated with only some commercial ventures not with the original concept they originally stood for. His observation rightly underscores the impact the commercials have on the children as well as the grown-ups. Regrettably, the parents can now hardly influence the thought-pattern and taste of their own children. So much so that the over-informed children need to be treated with the kid gloves. Therefore, today’s parents need to be more vigil and concerned about their children. Mercifully, there is a lone viable solution to good parenting still is available to the doting parents. That is the same old time-tested formula - be a good friend and a role-model for the kids. This must be in a subliminal manner without being a preacher from atop the parenting foot-hill. So, please think it over—Can we call the parenting an ART anymore?