It is blessing to become a parent for a male as well as for a woman but with a child; also come a whole lot of new responsibilities that the parents have to fulfil in order to give a good upbringing to that child. Parents have to look for each and every aspect of the upbringing of their child and this very process is known as parenting. Parenting is indeed a crucial process because it involves a lot of adjustments, implications, knowledge, experience and even sacrifices from the parents. It is believed that the only that parenting is successful in which the parents are able to create a confident, high-spirited, humble, tolerant and a virtuous personality of their child.
Parenting and its Dimensions
Parenting in the modern times has become complex and challenging because the parents are not able to focus upon the exact dimensions of this process and sometimes blindly follow the needless practices and impart unnecessary information to the child. Parenting or in fact a good parenting revolves around the Five main aspects of development of the child and these are:
- Moral Development: moral development is related with the inculcation of good values and principles in the child. since the young parents believe more in the modern and westernized values (such as individualism, self-centeredness, impatience, wickedness, hurry etc.) they tend to impart the same in their child and thus the child stays untouched by the fundamental moral values (honesty, truth, patience, wisdom, humility, tolerance, respect, compassion, etc.) that truly make him/her a virtuous person. Young parents should not lose their hope and faith in their Indian moral values that work as the building blocks for the child.
- Social Development: social development is related to the social exposure or the socialization of the child. It also includes the kind of company the child is introduced to, the young parents are themselves very social and thoroughly enjoy late night parties, company of many friends and all, and they also do not hesitate from drinking alcohol and smoking in front of their kids. And this is the kind of socialization the small kids tend to get in the modern times. Socialization is a vital process that should be accompanied with a right company, involvement of elders and relatives and restrictions on bad habits followed socially.
- Personal Development: it is to do with the physical development of the child, it is found that mostly young parents themselves are so busy that they do not have any time to work out and to exercise, they enjoy junk/fast food, and thus such a life routine is transmitted to the child who becomes habitual of a dull life routine. Rather the young parents should include the habit of exercising for few minutes or should take the child to the park on at least weekends to play any sport. This will encourage the child immensely to get engrossed in physical activities to keep the body fit and healthy. Eating homemade food is always beneficial for the child once in a while is okay but eating junk on a frequent basis is not at all healthy for the child.
- Psychological/Emotional Development: in the modern times every one of us faces many struggles, stress and anxieties which certainly affect our mental peace and harmony. Young parents are found to face many kinds of mental tensions which are in some way reflected on the child, and moreover parents have no enough time to spend and to interact with the child in a profound way. They are not able to communicate with the child about the issues thus the child becomes emotionally insecure and weak.
- Spiritual Development: this is one of the most important aspects of child’s upbringing that most of the young parents tend to neglect. Spiritual development has nothing to do with practicing the religious activities rather it is to do with imparting the right knowledge of the self into the child right from the early age. Encouraging the child to explore and experience the harmony and beauty of the inner-self is very important; practicing meditation is also an important part of the same. Young parents must practice spirituality in their lives to manage their stressful lifestyles and to enhance inner stability.
Young Parents and the Challenges of Parenting
As we have already discussed that the young parents face many challenges during the process of parenting because their own lifestyles, routine and patterns are messed up and not rightly conducted and thus they are not able to give a flawless parenting to the child. If the child turns out to be lazy, irritated, rebel, emotionally weak, physically inactive, follow bad habits, it does not mean that all the mistakes lie with the child only, there certainly have some flaws been left during their parenting which are now resulting into further flaws.
The age in which we are growing today is more about the age of technology and independence in financial terms. In this rat race to achieve the maximum, the young couples are dreadfully failing as the parents. Having very little time for themselves, sparing a part of it for their kids seems to be a hustle! The nuclear family system has been the perfect cherry on the cake as it devoids children of the company of any elder person. Unfortunately, nation is losing as a whole in this context.
its beautifully written and described about parenting and its core values.