When I was traveling from Bangalore to Bhubaneswar on a business-cum-pleasure trip, I overheard awoman co-passenger pointing out to the Airport Control Tower and telling her 5 or 6-year-old daughter,"Look, there is the lighthouse!" I was quite shocked to hear this, but the little girl was happy and keptrepeating the word ‘lighthouse’ while pointing to the Control Tower and asking her mother a few morefollow-on questions whose answers were not exactly correct throughout most of the conversation.By this time, I was totally flabbergasted. Why would you do that to your own child? Why would youteach them incorrect or partially correct things? In today’s world, when knowledge is freely available insuch abundance, your carelessness as a parent might lead to two kinds of problems:
1. i
Your child can keep storing the inaccurate information in their heads since it came from their all knowing, all-powerful dad or mom until mocked by friends for the same – not a great thing to happen to a child who probably idolizes you and your knowledge.
2. ii
And even worse, they can find out the correct information from any encyclopedia, book or the ever growing internet which is when their respect for you, the all-knowing mom or dad, goes down. In this day and age, you must adapt as a parent along with your child, grow with them, learn with them. Producing a child is easy. Becoming a parent is hard. It takes a mega-sized effort to come in sync with them. After all, they are born and brought up in the digital era, you were not! They have information allaro und them abundantly available in exa-bytes, you did not have this privilege as a kid. But, that does not mean that you cannot adapt. When you do not know the answer to their queries (and, it can happen so many times with their creativity at its peak), you must make it an exercise to work with them and help them find answers through various sources. It can become that fun kid-mom or kid-dad exercise that they are proud of and always remember even after they grow up, and probably add to their list of life-defining moments. This article was first published here: https://www.dnaindia.com/lifestyle/comment-new-age-parenting-you-need-to-learn-with-the-child-2077222