Joys of parenting

"TRUE PARENTING is mothering and fathering," says the booklet given to the trainers attending a workshop on Information and Parenting. They are later to train other trainers who will, in turn, spread the message to young mothers.

Does parenting need information and training? You may wonder. Educating parents on their role and the rest of the family to recognise, appreciate and support them in that role has become a crying need in this age of nuclear families, where most mothers work outside the home.

A Parenting Information Network has been formed in Tamil Nadu with initial funding from UNICEF. Its secretariat is in Balamandir, Chennai.

The network is committed to supporting efforts to strengthen capacities of parents and communities to create a positive, nurturing environment for children, especially those from deprived and unreached rural and urban communities. It seeks to promote child rearing practices below five years that guarantee a child's physical and psycho-social well-being.

In today's demanding world, the mother has little time to look after the emotional needs of her child. Research has shown that the ways in which children respond to their environment and develop learning capacities are a consequence of the nourishment and stimulation received right from the foetal stage through the early years.

The network believes that the problems of children are created by apathy, poverty, neglect and insensitivity of adults.

"If the process of looking at parenting as a serious matter does not start now, we will have on our hands large numbers of children growing up as frustrated youth, lacking strength of purpose, with untapped potential and expressing aggressiveness in every sphere of life and action... Children are a biological and social necessity. Early childhood is the foundation on which children build their lives," says Maya Gaitonde, convenor for communications for the network. Children have three vital needs - love, care and self-esteem. Loving and caring relationships can relieve extreme levels of stress. Children need to learn to trust themselves and develop feelings of competence and self-esteem.

For this parental assurance is very essential. With family structures, the world over, continuing to change in response to industrialisation, urbanisation, population growth, increasing longevity and migration, cultural and survival practices have got disrupted, leaving families unable to provide an optimal environment for growing children. As a consequence, there is an increased demand for community-based child care services as a complement rather than as an alternative to the direct provision of quality child care programmes.

The network has involved itself not only in providing such programmes but also training parents in family care and child development skills.

Above all, it appeals to the heart. Its workshops and flip charts focus on health care issues and the joys of parenting. Concepts that science does not talk about.

V. R. DEVIKA

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