When was the last time you saw a boy in a cast or a girl with a sling around her neck?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The opening question must have caught you off guard, and now you are deciding whether to read on. Well, as a child growing up in the 90s, I spent much of my childhood playing, under the bright sun, on the verdant pastures of my neighbourhood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was common to find boys and girls with bruised knees, scratched elbows and occasionally with a sling around the neck, propping a fractured wrist. Times seem to have changed. Today, youngsters seek hollow validation and often suffer from a fractured ego, something that cannot be mended with a cast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I honed gross motor skills in the kitchen, badgering my mother for a lump of the wet dough and then making all sorts of shapes till my arms ached. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
These were the magical hours when valiant kings, bold queens, impudent princes and adventurous princesses would step into my room, with my grandmother narrating some of the most fantastic fables.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I ate the sourest plums and got a sore throat, a friend\u2019s mother would firmly hold my hand and make me gargle with brine. Vegetables were local, and so were our problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Weekends were about making mischief with cousins, splaying under the winter sun, reading comics or huddling under a dusty bed, playing hide and seek. Any dispute could be patched with a lozenge wrapped in a glassy film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A handful of channels on television would often reduce to white noise, causing my elder brother to go up to the terrace to fix the aerial, with me standing downstairs, with hands akimbo, playing the mediator between the rooftop antennae and the temperamental TV in the living room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Often, a serious scuffle would ensue among the siblings to determine who would get the turn to play the intermediary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The most anxiety-inducing wait would always be for the next issue of the magazines that would publish exciting stories in painfully short instalments. The hero was about to disclose the name of the embezzler, and lo, the next line read, \u2018To be continued\u2026\u2026\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Childhood was never meant to be a race. It was never meant to be stoked with hollow validations. The time has come for us to pause and ask ourselves, \u201cAre we raising fragile individuals\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The newspaper headlines, which read, \u201cAnother young life lost\u201d, scream for the institutions to ponder the efficacy of the ecosystem we have built for the young ones. I wonder where the time for free and unstructured play went? Green zones are shrinking, and playgrounds have turned into plots to be turned into plots by predatory developers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And, while we have been busy debating over the stock market, our children are slowly turning into vulnerable individuals who can\u2019t handle defeats or a firm rebuke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Family dynamics have changed. Long working hours for both parents, grandparents’ unavailability and a fast-changing social framework have posed a challenge that the susceptible minds can hardly decipher. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But then, this column was never meant to be a critique of modern parenting or a rant on the loss of idyllic childhood in the bygone eras. It is my humble shot at finding a fix that will make childhood joyous again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let\u2019s address the basics first. The young ones in the family are never the afterthought; they are the priority. We allocate time for every task, thinking that a half-hour chat session under the duvet with the toddler or a bike ride with the tween can and must wait until the weekend. Well, they don\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They grow up before we manage to wink. So, today is a perfect day to turn that habit around. A quarter-hour morning meal with family members sitting at the table and discussing a quick plan for the day is a great idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This makes a family start the day like a close-knit unit, where each one is aware of the whereabouts of the others. Leave a note in their lunchboxes. It never fails to bring a smile to a child\u2019s face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meal-prep time can be easily made gleeful, with the home team chopping, chatting and chuckling together. This is an excellent way to make the young ones learn vital cognitive and life skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the young ones see the adults breaking the gender stereotypes, they grow up to be egalitarian and unbound by societal stereotypes. Just like we make time for checking our social media handles, can we not keep aside a dedicated half an hour just for a heart-to-heart?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s astonishing how much children really want to share when they are presented with an opportunity for a non-judgmental gab session.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you wish to know the latest gaming terminology, fads, what\u2019s trending, and how they feel about themselves, I strongly recommend making a nighttime chat a part of your schedule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you can, bring the winter luncheons back on Sundays, spread a mat on the roof or in your balcony and share the pickle and the memories of your school life as you laugh away the weekly burnout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hugs or pats should be as frequent as the notification pings from your phone. Digital detox has become more crucial than ever. The only way to make a child feel heard is by listening to them while keeping the ever-buzzing devices at arm\u2019s length. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Clearly, there is no one-size-fits-all kind of made-easy available. It\u2019s how we adapt and learn to make the early years the best for the young ones who will grow up in an unpredictable world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s time we took this up as a cardinal commitment and delivered really well. Each one of us parents is writing a bildungsroman; let\u2019s make it our masterpiece.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"