Are they on the right path?

Lost Innocence

The kids today are literally glued to technology, there’s nothing under the sun that they really don’t know about and there really isn’t anything that teenagers don’t try
out, either in the open or on the sly.

Metrolife interacted with a few parents to know how they are securing their kids’
childhood and educationists to understand how best to mould today’s generation.

S V Padmalatha and Ramesh Babu, have one son — Rahul Chakravarthy.
Padmalatha confesses that they didn’t have an internet connection in their house
until their son finished class ten and had only a cable TV connection and not a dish antenna.

“I would keep a tab on what SMSes he got and after we got an internet connection, I kept an eye  on his friends’ list on networking sites. There are no hard-and-fast rules but he knows right from wrong,” says Padmalatha.
 
Jose Koshy, an executive with a software company, has a teenaged son Andrew and a daughter Anna.

He says he has given his children complete freedom but has made them realise that all this freedom comes with limitations.

“We’ve made our son realise that a cellphone is a necessity more than a fad and that he can carry it whenever he leaves home just to stay in touch with us.”

“We can’t control our kids but we can definitely tell them what’s right and wrong and guide them on the right path. I spend a lot of time with them and that makes all the difference,” explains Jose.

Shamsunder Talreja and Ishita have two children – ten-year-old Disha and six-year-old Kabir.

They feel that parenting in today’s fast-paced world is challenging and almost a full-time job. They confess they try to focus their energy on the health, safety and emotional needs of their children.

“Balancing the material needs of our children like exposure to fancy gadgets and introducing them to simple pleasures like playing in the park or washing the car on Sundays matters to us. We would like to be good roles models for our children,”
observes Ishita.

While parents feel they divert all their energy and spare time to moulding their children in the right direction, educationists point out that parents need to spend quality time with their children and not try to compensate the time lost by gifting them expensive toys.

Swati Poppat Vats, an educationist avers that parents must gift their kids their precious time.

“Spending time with them is more precious than anything money can buy. Spend an entire day with your child doing whatever he or she wants and then see the smile spread on his or her face and stay in their memories,” says Swati.

She also feels that rather than restrict their children, parents must introduce them to technology in a friendly manner.

“The way parents get their views across to their children makes a lot of difference,” she wraps up.