The Indian Way Of Life - For Children And Parents

Prabhat Mandal, founder of Magicc in Parenting, has been involved in helping parents become more confident in making choices as well as empowering them to spend quality time spent with their children. Over 12 years, he has trained and coached several thousands of parents.

- Prabhat Mandal

There are many shifts that we have seen in last few decades in the way children see life around them. These days children do not ask for laddu and rasagulla, they ask for doughnuts instead. Children have more affinity towards Spiderman and Pokemon than Hanuman. Likewise, Hollywood movies are preferred to narration of grandma’s stories. Children do not know the problems faced by people in the neighbourhood but are up to date on the latest gadgets released. Availability of information thanks to internet connectivity and resources due to prosperity are no doubt the most influential factors. While it is healthy to learn from other cultures, what many parents are concerned about is the devaluing, in children’s minds and hearts, of all that is Indian. What does an Indian way of life really mean? How do we imbibe this, both for ourselves and our children?

Read on.

Spiritual outlook or being connected with the Inner Universe

The traditional Indian way of raising a child involved development of all five aspects - physical, mental, social, emotional and spiritual. Spiritual aspect of development, especially, has always been an integral part of raising a child. Most of us are not clear about spirituality, especially what it means to a child. One way of examining this is to break up the word. There are two parts in the word – Spirit and All – that is, all things to be done with full spirit. If we look at the Indian lifestyle, we have many festivals throughout the year and all these festivals involve a lot of activities at home, with all family members taking part, in one way or the other. Cleaning, decoration, cooking of special dishes, dressing up, singing, dancing, sharing with people around - children who grow up doing all this, learn the associated skills naturally. At the same time, children understand the value of these festivals.