However good a parent we may be, we have to be ready for surprises!

Parenting as the dictionary defines it, is ‘the occupation or concerns of parents’. This concern for the well-being of our children is a full time occupation. We have two sons, Aman (nine years) and Armaan (sixteen months). When we decided to have a family, we learnt that we had to express love not only for the expectant child, but also for all the children of the school where Anshu was teaching and to all other children with whom we came in contact.

"I am a Coconut but I like to drink Limca"

Besides giving love, we need to have a lot of patience to deal with our children. This reminds us of an amusing incident when our son Aman was in nursery school. There was a fancy dress show in school and the topic was food. We thought it wise to dress him up as a coconut which was a healthy food and taught him to say “I am a Coconut". A little before going up on stage, he changed his mind and insisted on being a bottle of Limca. We were worried and at our wits end about how to handle the situation. With the guidance of an understanding teacher, we bought him a bottle of Limca. He happily marched onto the stage, stood up proudly and said, “I am a Coconut -but I like to drink Limca”. He really brought the house down! However good a parent we may be, we have to be ready for surprises!

One aspect that has worked for us with regard to children is to see them in a spiritual light. We need to understand and acknowledge the fact that they have been created by God and are always in their Father-Mother God’s care. God is the origin of fathering qualities like strength, support and protection and also the mothering qualities like gentleness, comfort, kindness and nurturing love. A prayer in the Hindu Scriptures states “Tvameva Mata, Cha Pita Tvameva …. (You are our Mother and our Father).

For daily inspiration, we study from a book, ‘Science and Health, With Key to the Scriptures’. The author, Mary Baker Eddy, describes children as ‘the spiritual thoughts and representatives of Life, Truth and Love (which are synonyms of God)’. When we look at children with this view, they are a joy to look after.

Seeing children in a spiritual light inspired us to start an organization called Edutainment which means ‘Entertainment with an Educational Aspect’. Topics like ‘God, Prayer and the Power of Gratitude’, ‘Value of Values’, ‘Effective Leadership’, ‘Caring for your Family’, ‘Dignity of Labour’, etc are dealt with at these camps. We aim to make education fun and help children become responsible human beings.

Overprotection is an example of the wrong type of parenting. Before each camp a mother who was keen to send her child would ask for details and then call back saying that her husband and in - laws would not give permission. Eventually they agreed provided a caretaker was allowed to accompany the child. We made an exception in this case with the condition that the caretaker would not interfere with our activities. However, nothing had prepared us for what was about to happen. We had issued name tags to all the children and discovered the caretaker wearing the one allotted to the boy -because the cord was tickling the child! The shocked look on our faces would surely have qualified as a ‘Kodak Moment’. This was not the end of the story. The caretaker started doing everything for the child. He carried his bag, unpacked it and even brought food for him on a tray until we finally put our foot down. While our aim was to teach the kids ‘Dignity of Labour’, here we were seeing a case of ‘Taking Advantage of Labour’.

At the camp, the kids were told that they could knock at our door any time of the day or night if they needed anything. We did not realize what we were heading for. Every five minutes we had a knock at our door with children coming up with the smallest of excuses. We ultimately decided to leave our door open. It was exhausting, though we enjoyed parenting them. Whoever said parenting was easy did not have 60 children to look after, though it was much easier than writing this article!

Anshu and Anil Anand
Organisers, Edutainment, Mumbai