Parenting Right

The fear of future complications often leads to distress, where parents become overprotective.

- Chandani Chawla

Being a parent or a loved one of someone who has Type 1 diabetes can be extremely challenging. The increased emotional stress and adjustment to a new altered lifestyle is a lot to take on. If you are a parent, I am pretty sure the news of your child being diagnosed was heartbreaking and scary. My name is Chandani Chawla and I have been a Type 1 diabetic for over twenty years.

My father tells me that when I was diagnosed at the age of seven, the doctor said, “It would have been better if you got it instead, Mr. Chawla as Chandani’s childhood is now over”. The doctor clearly didn’t realise the psychological distress that remark created for my parents, making them feel vulnerable and generating a sense of fear stressing over me having a “normal” life. For the doctor, a normal childhood was binging on sweets and junk food. He advised my parents to take me to a hospital and show me cases of people who haven’t looked after their condition, so I could visually see the terrible complications of not controlling diabetes.

Thankfully, my parents felt it was unnecessary and would scar me for life. I would like to point out a very important subtext to this situation, which is trying to generate results through the tool of fear. The doctor scared my parents to make sure they understood and took my condition seriously, and tried to instill fear in me by advising a hospital visit.