How to raise my Kid?

This is the question which I grapple with every few days. I would be the first to admit that the way me and my brother were raised by my parents, I would be hard pressed to do so the same way. There are multitude of factors governing his statement of mine.

We were born in not so poor but definitely not rich category, where the struggles were real but basic necessities were met with ease. We could not splurge but we had our weekly family outings of chaat and panipuri. Movies in the 90s were not so accessible as they are now but we definitely got our dosage of the khans every quarter (IYKYK). Amitabh Bachchan was not the greatest actor in the world but a middle aged man trying very hard to cling onto his angry young man persona. There were not stars or superstars but there also weren't many great actors, if you catch my drift. We could play all day in the mud, rain and sun and not have our parents fussing over us about the diseases and dangers of playing unattended. We could learn, live, laugh do whatever we want (as long as parents did not know or they approved) without having our peers and the entire world judging on the way we presented ourselves. Social media or any kind of media, apart from doordarshan (sports/news/normal), were for the privileged i.e. our grand parents and at max our parents.

Those were the jolly good old 90s when screen time for children as a concept did not exist. Dual working parents was a concept which was very new and very few. Metros were just big cities with limited access to far flung areas more than 10 kms from city centres which were out of bounds after evenings. Malls were just a collection of shops either in a building or in a gully where clothes and toys were purchased for us since we were born, and in many cases since our parents were kids.

How do we raise kids now, when their childhoods are extremely poles apart from ours. What are the learnings that we can take from our parents and what are the new things we need to do in order to raise a healthy happy child in this world of extreme insight into your personal life.

I do not have the answers to all these questions but I will try and pen my thoughts on this subject one by one. The first subject to be breached in this series would be - Education or schooling, what is important?

In this world of black and white, i feel we miss the chance to put our own suggestions for the fear of offending someone who does not agree or getting offended for them not agreeing with our viewpoint. Forget such things and write/comment so that we all can learn and grow together!

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