Interview With Sonam Jain
A food artist, a parenting blogger, and a coach known explicitly for her food art skills ‘Magic Platter’ that helps moms of fussy eaters. She started her career as a rural marketer who travelled the interior of the country to understand the consumer psyche and create dossiers for brands to market their products to the customer. Her creative juices started flowing out and she started crafting fun plates for her nephew so that he eats the food. But the surprise unfolded when she shared her creativity on social media and one of the parenting community featured her food art on their platform and then it was no way going backward.
This week, we interviewed Sonam Jain and her views on ‘Pandemic Parenting‘
Q. What do you think are some of the most significant difficulties faced by families as a result of the pandemic?
I believe, most of the families in this pandemic are facing one or more issues primarily in these 3 parameters of life.
Financial Crisis – Most of the households have been facing financial situations due to varied reasons like a salary cut or loss of job, business stagnancy, or paying off bills, loans, debts without sustainable earning. Financial stability has been hampered and taken a back seat.
Social Connections with near and dear ones – i.e. your family members may have been bliss but have taken the nature of the pendulum. On one hand, you have been in extremely close contact with your core family members, and on other hand, there has been no or little contact with friends, family members, co-workers. Too much of each other can be overwhelming and too little of each other may make you socially sick and crave more of it.
Emotional and Behavioural problems – Many of them have been going through emotional upheaval where sadness, helplessness, boredom, frustration has increased the level of stress and anxieties in our lives. Much of it is being reflected in our behaviour, mood swings, temperament, etc. The fact that liquor shops are doing a good job shows how we are looking for some external gratification which is a sign of behaviour change.
Q. How did you and your family members cope with the stress of quarantine and social distancing?
I live in a joint family and hence for me, it was important to remove time for myself and unwind. I took one hour of the day every day to pamper myself maybe through journaling, doing literally nothing, catching on to my sleep, etc. I even started painting and reading books which were due to just lift my mood, similarly for my family members where each one of us took an hour of the day to relax and do what we like and not thinking about the chores of the day.
Secondly, to cope with the mundane routine of life, we resorted to playing a lot of board games, having a movie night, and most importantly taking a break from Covid news floating around on the internet, TV, etc. We actually limited the news to just a few hours a day and disconnecting from phone, TV, and computer screens for a while. Also thanks to the modern era of mobiles, I could connect with friends and family through video chats and have fun family sessions on zoom just to bring a dash of happiness to our lives.
Q. How frequently do you assist your child with their schoolwork and how does your child react to it?
My child is just 4 years old and I am constantly around him. Actually, it is vice versa and he is constantly around me. I have to sit with him during his online sessions and just can’t take my eyes off for a minute. Having said that, he actually loves meeting his friends and teacher and looks forward to his online classes. This is one element of the day which makes him extremely excited.
Q. What does your child enjoy the most/least about online classes? What are your opinions on this new digital learning era?
The concept of schooling unfortunately for his age started with the idea of online. Since he has actually not lived or physically visited the school he does not know what he is missing. He enjoys the activities the teachers demonstrate and make them do. He loves virtual birthday celebrations. He also feels his teacher makes him feel special by calling out his name to answer a question and that’s a moment of pride for him. On the other hand, he does say he wants to visit and see the school to meet his friends and keeps questioning me when is that going to happen.
My opinion of the new digital learning era is that it is the need of the hour. You have to move with the chords of time and adapt yourself to the new functioning. Digital Era has opened up lots of opportunities to start learning at any age, offering varied courses and information on career paths sitting in Mumbai, I can get a USA college degree which is wonderful. Also, I feel the lack of connection and meeting people physically can be met only by creating communities (physical place) to interact with fellow members or on a specific day of the week, etc.
Q. How are you keeping your kids busy and making sure they stick to their healthy routine?
Keeping active a 4-year hyperactive child is quite a daunting task. I have managed to keep a proper schedule of his meals, bedtime, and more so that we have our schedules aligned.
I keep him busy by getting him to help me in house chores like keeping utensils, cleaning vegetables, watering the plants, etc. I also read out books and create a lot of book-based play activities for him like drawing the characters of the book, clay modeling, getting him to journal (scribble or draw) what he feels. I have an assigned outdoor schedule wherein I manage to channelize his energy by getting him to cycle, trampoline jumping, some physical dance movement, and creating obstacle plays with house furniture.
Q. What activities do you carry out with your family members and kids at home? What do you do to help your family stay healthy?
We all have our personal chosen routine which is very refreshing I believe. My husband plays a sport in the evening, I love art journaling, my inlaws are more into meditation and yoga. So we kinda have our own preferences which we follow.
On the other hand, we are a foodie family so dieting or sticking to extremely healthy meals like salads/smoothies do not function well. But what I have incorporated is to make junk food healthy by treating it differently. For example, I need to prepare a burger for dinner I ensure I use multigrain buns instead of normal maida buns available, make a patty using loads of veggies, just dribble oil and saute the patty instead of frying it. This way I am not serving an unhealthy meal and also letting the tastebuds explore.
Q. What has been the best/worst part for you during this pandemic?
I have been a person who have always been on foot and getting confided in 4 walls has been really tough. I wish to break free and fly like a bird, meet friends, and just be surrounded by people.
I have been a person who have always been on foot and getting confided in 4 walls has been really tough. I wish to break free and fly like a bird, meet friends, and just be surrounded by people. However, the worst for me was not being able to meet and visit my parents, sister which made me very uneasy and restless. I just wish to go and stay with them for some time.
On the other hand, I have actually made good use of this pandemic period. I have started journaling and meditating for 9 months now. I also took up a course on parenting and very soon will be a certified parent coach.
Q. How does your child feel about what is happening around him/her? Do you think their understanding of what is happening is having an impact on how they feel?
I believe my child has understood the outline of what crisis are we going through. He knows there is a disease name Corona virus and we cannot step out or it will attack us.
In spite of whatever they understand, kids are kids and they have an innate desire in them to be free, running around and be curious all the time. And because their basic physical, mental, and emotional needs are not being met in the most appropriate manner it is bound to affect their feelings. It is like keeping an animal in the cage and giving him the luxury of life but he would want to run, jump and live free in the jungle.
Q. Has parenting been a difficult or easy experience for you during these trying times? What does your regular routine look like?
Honestly, the second lockdown has been a task to me. I have been emotionally affected or overwhelmed the entire time my son being around and not getting the break I want. Also, I am always looking out for means and ways to keep him occupied, nothing seems enough and there is always that mom guilt that surfaces upon which makes parenting even more difficult.
Honestly, the second lockdown has been a task to me. I have been emotionally affected or overwhelmed the entire time my son being around and not getting the break I want. Also, I am always looking out for means and ways to keep him occupied, nothing seems enough and there is always that mom guilt that surfaces upon which makes parenting even more difficult.
My regular routine is about getting up an hour early before my child so I can take that space to meditate, journal, have my coffee and start my day with my things to do. The entire morning then goes in getting chores of the house done and attending online classes. Later on, I have assigned my time to do my official work which passes in a jiffy, if I may say. My evenings are generally spent with my child giving him a boost of adrenaline rush. I end my day having a meaningful conversation with my husband and child, some mediation, and a good night sleep.
Q. What advice would you like to share with all the moms/dads out there?
Kids have been the worst sufferers. They have lost their basic freedom of movement, growth, and learning. And yet there is so much to learn from them. I would just tell moms and dads to keep their patience switched on, acknowledge their feelings, just shower love, hugs, and kisses, and importantly respect them for being their true versions.
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