Are You A Responsible Parent?
Working parents get so busy with their work and responsibilities that they tend to ignore their kids. Tiredness and exhaustion often keeps them away from their children. And they assume that ignoring the little ones sometimes is alright because after all, even they are human and need some space. To aggravate this situation even more, parents get fancy gadgets and electronics like a tablet or a laptop and let the kids be by themselves. Once the kids reach the age of 2 or 3 years, an age when they can do some basic things by themselves; parents take partial leave from their responsibility. Well, it’s years later when they realize how much they need their kids.
They are your responsibility
Very few parents understand the meaning of “responsibility towards their kids”. Responsibility is not just about earning, feeding and getting fancy things for your children. It’s about caring and showing them that you care. It’s about talking and listening to them. When your kids are below 7-8 years old, the most important thing for them is your approval. They want to make you proud. They want to show you what they did.
I am busy
When you are on an important phone call, your kid comes to you and keeps yelling for your attention. You put your phone on hold and ask “What is it”? All the kid does is jump and waits for some attention and appreciation. What are you supposed to do? Yell at him saying “Go away, can’t you see I’m on a call?”
Or when you are watching the news on the television you would say, “Go to your room, I’m watching the news”. No! You are supposed to put your phone/remote away, appreciate his act and tell him to do it once more. At a young age, they crave for your attention and appreciation.
When time flies too soon
After few years when they grow up into teenagers, you’ll wonder when the tables turned. They are quiet and you are the one trying to start a conversation. Asking them questions and getting answers out of them resembles an interrogation process while they keep themselves busy with texting on their high-end gadget. Remember you were the one who taught them to use one of those.
At a younger age, your children crave your attention but as they grow, you crave their attention. So giving more importance to your other jobs and workplace and ignoring your child for the reason – “I’m tired of working the whole day” is not a good idea. Your actual job begins after you come home. The day job was just to fulfil this real job at home. Building the relationship with your children is more important that becoming just an elderly person for them.
This doesn’t mean that your kids always have to be happy or you need to get approval from others that you are a good parent. The only approval has to be from your kid. And sometimes it’s fine if they are unhappy about something, but you as a parent are the one responsible to know about it and take care of the issue if necessary. At times, parenting can feel like a circus and you may have to do several balancing acts at the same time. That’s when you have to prioritize and head back to pick your battles.
Mrs. Archana Jathan Karkera, a new mother curious about the parenting universe holds a Masters degree in Information Technology. Her thought of “Explore yourself before you die” inspires her to dive into various hobbies – Blogging being one of them. Her scribbling partner archa
