Parenting in a competitive Indian Society is a challenge

When a child is born, her mother, or more broadly speaking, her parents, make her first connection to the outside world. A baby looks at the world through the eyes of her parents and attempts to emulate what she sees in them. A parent-child relationship, then, establishes the framework for the “construction of her life.” The act of raising a child is called parenting. It is comparable to the nutrition required for a seedling to develop into a large, bountiful tree. Therefore, effective parenting is crucial for a child to develop into a lovely human being.

Different cultures have different parenting practises. The world is a vast area with a wide range of people living various lifestyles. Although culture is the essential component, parenting is also influenced by the economy and style of living. While there are some values that cut across all cultures, such as honesty and integrity, the value system is separated when it comes to some of the most important aspects of parenting, as seen by the comparison of the Indian and Western parenting styles.

India is a country with many different traditions, all of which have the same core values. A child is raised in a culture where she learns to value people and relationships since blended families are still a common trend in India. A grandmother in the home has a crucial role in imparting moral ideals in the kid, in addition to caring for the child’s physical development during her formative years. She picks up respect for her elders by observing them around the house.

This has a significant impact on how the youngster interacts with those who are not members of her immediate family. Respect for other people, their values, and customs is fostered by Indian parenting practises. Indian parents firmly feel that their child is a member of their family and community and that it is crucial for the child to understand that every choice she makes and every action she does has an impact on the entire family and community.

She now owes her family and, more importantly, the community as a result of this. Parents strongly think that their child is an individual whose individual rights should be honoured, in contrast to the West. They worry about criticising or disciplining their child if they don’t live up to this standard. As a result, the youngster develops a preference for personal interests over those of the society. On the other side, the Indian philosophy of placing more emphasis on others fosters a feeling of community and harmony with the environment, which more than ever need our attention.
Indian parents place a lot of value on grades and their child’s achievement in school on the academic front. They keep themselves informed on the child’s social and academic lives.

The Indian approach is pretty straightforward: “Help the kids realise their best, which is frequently more than they imagine.” The youngster may be happier when watching TV or hanging out with friends, but if she maintains her academic progress, she will eventually be able to earn well and flourish in life. As a result, while extracurricular activities are valued, academics take centre stage.

While Western parents do monitor their children’s schoolwork, they place more value on happiness than a strong academic record, thus they allow their children to follow their passions. However, the Indian parent makes a valid point: “If you allow a ten-year-old child pursue her interest, she can wind up spending five hours a day on Facebook.” Her development is hampered by this level of independence.

She has an advantage over her Western counterpart when they are put on the same stage because the Indian parents’ concentration on academics causes the youngster to feel competitive. Indian parenting thus not only encourages respect for people and their values, but it also raises a more successful child. As a result, because the foundation is sturdy enough to support it, the “building of the child’s life” continues to rise.

The fundamentals of parenting are the same regardless of the differences between rural and urban (Indian) upbringing. For instance, a rural child may spend more time with friends than an urban youngster does, but both children recognise the value of family. With the advent of modernization, Indian parents are becoming more receptive to their children’s requests, but they are still able to strike a balance between the child’s demands and her welfare. As a result, Indian parenting is developing and moving closer to the ideal model of parenting.

A child’s foundation is their family, especially their parents. However, care must be taken to ensure that the child grows up independent and does not rely on his parents for nearly a quarter of his life, as is common in India. Everything that children do—from the clothes they wear to the school stream they enrol in—is selected by their parents. And this is not the end of it. If not fully, their parents’ choices will have a significant impact on the college, course, city of employment, and even the spouse.

Children require and need attention from their parents, but parents often fail to realise how dependent their children are on them in this process. A child frequently gives up on following his dreams in favour of those of his parents. His creativity is constrained in the early years of his life. Particularly in a nation like India, every father wants their child to become a doctor or an engineer. The child’s vocation is frequently chosen even before his birth.

This is nicely portrayed in the film “3 Idiots.” Unconventional fields like fashion design, writing, cartooning, photography, etc. aren’t even thought of as job prospects. Indian parents frequently give more thought to what they will have to say to society than to what their children want. In contrast, young people in the West pursue temporary occupations like delivering newspapers or working in cafes to become financially independent.

Indian parents would never tolerate this because such jobs are viewed as lowly. Indian parents place a greater emphasis on academics than other parents do. They fail to recognise the importance of extracurricular activities for a child’s overall development. Indian parents frequently use the expression “padhoge likhoge banoge nawab, kheloge koodoge hoge kharaab” in Hindi (you will be a spoilt child if you play, and will be successful only if you study well).

Sachin Tendulkar would not currently be at the pinnacle of success if his parents had felt the same way about him. Parents must thus acknowledge a child’s talent and encourage him to pursue it. The parenting style in India is also very traditional. Teenagers rarely talk openly with their parents about things like sex, drinking, smoking, etc. In reality, these topics are frequently avoided in Indian homes.

Children learn about these topics from the wrong sources as a result, and they ultimately choose the wrong course of action. Parents must realise that after a certain age, parents must start acting more like friends than protectors in order to best support their children’s development. Parental intervention extends beyond choosing a child’s career and also includes selecting the best match for them.

The only place in the world where arranged weddings are strongly encouraged and love marriages are discouraged is possibly India. Why is that, too? A twenty-something can’t make decisions about who is right for them and who they should spend their lives with. Such parenting makes kids emotionally, socially, and financially dependent on their parents.
Until they become parents themselves, children rely on them. Clearly, raising a child in this manner is not progressive. A youngster needs to be capable of making decisions for himself and be prepared to live with the results. In the end, all parents want to protect their children, yet being overprotective can cause the child to lack confidence.

A person must be able to make quick decisions in today’s globalised and intensely competitive society, and this ability can only be developed if one’s parents instil this habit in them from an early age. These are a person’s formative years; lessons learned during this time help mould one’s mind and character.