Parent's Day..Annual Day..Sports Day..Project Day...Grand Parent's Day !!!!

         I remember the happy days before my school parent's day ( of course main reason being there used to be hardly any classes

) , then when my son started school, it was the annual days, their  sun filled sports days, their school project day which ensures parents have enough work ......  and then  from my daughter's play school came the invite for the grandparents day !!!  and I thought ' wow , nice thought !!'.....

My daughter kept saying' Patti schooliku Varva'...non stop and it was evident that her grandmother was happy . The proud feeling or rather the feel good factor of spending the day at her grandchild's school , win a couple of games and comeback with both their hands impressions printed on a card, was lingering for them the whole day . It was for sure a topic of discussion among her sisters on the phone !

I am sure many schools these days have a grandparents day. Have the schools acknowledged what ,we working parents take for granted ? If we rewind 40 years back , with joint families being the norm and mothers were mostly full time home makers , children had a whale of time growing up midst a vibrant crowd. Child care was not the most challenging aspects of life. School holidays , the rain holidays were not 'thing to be taken care of ', because  the kids will be at home when we are in office.

We have traversed a long long  way ( such a long way that now even our parents are active on whatsapp :-) ) ...  the ever shining middle class , globe trotting crowd making foot prints across continents, economic prosperity,'the something to reckin with'  entrepreneurship  .. this evolution is definitely a welcome one and at the same time  the care required by a child remains the same or is even more demanding considering their exposure quotients being high......

GrandParents house is no longer the place we eagerly look forward to during our school holidays. They are no longer the place in 'my native' where we go for festivals.

With both the parents working , maternal and paternal Grand parenting  have taken a new connotation called 'Parenting'. 
This 'Parenting' will be done only within the confines of the cozy relationship , our kids share with their grand parents.
This 'Parenting' will not impose the expectations or rules , that parents impose.
 The scope of this 'Parenting '  is different and will be done by stretching their physical and mental energy permissible by their age.
This 'Parenting' is done grabbing a good deal  of their space and time .
This 'Parenting ' is to be done , as a second cycle.
Finally, this 'Parenting' ensures a peace of mind for the parents.

There in lies the beauty because this 'Parenting ' because its still Grand parenting. The relationship equations in each household between the Parents , Grandparents and children will be unique and  multifaceted .For sure, its different in each house hold as to who takes more ownership and responsibility , but what ever be the case , this is a crucial factor in one's career development. There is  no right or wrong angle to this , as the need for an individual to work is equally important as the care a child requires. How is this balanced is each parent's individual choice , but as a parent if we want our children  to evolve in a particular way then it has to stem from us and not from the 'Parenting' done by Grand Parents.. because at the end of the day Grand parenting is a favor and not a duty - this blog is a small laurel for them.

Whatsapp...and whats happening - Disconnect to stay connected !!

            Ofcourse Whatsapp had to introduce something new..especially now since it belongs to face book...so bang came the new version which had notifications for messages that are read..( our famous double tick !)...this in turn opened up a pandora box of discussions on another tangent.. the ever prevalent question of privacy. From this stemmed an article I read in a daily news paper which stated that , being in love means staring into each others eyes online and that if the boy or girl ( replace with age group between 15 to 22  :-) ) knows the other has read the message and has not responded , it will trigger fights...because its seems that , the time between reading and responding is a crucial factor ( I felt for a moment we were designing a telecom product !).......
            So what happened to the something called trust in love ? Will strong relationships be really rattled by these single double triple..etc ticks..? or have we reached a stage where our online Avatar has gained more prominence than our real Avatar ........................................
         Honestly I am big fan of whatsapp -few years back it used to be a big drawback that there was no group reply in sms and forget sending media....( mms was of no use ) . Now with whatsapp I am so much in contact with my own localized groups...am chatting away  with my school friends after twenty three odd years , always in touch with my sisters and their families scattered in different cities ...planning has become so easy...and of course the ever crisscrossing videos and jokes and good morning gifs and all the same cost which ever part of the earth you are stuck in ( and may be after many decades which ever planet you are stuck in :-) )  
     hey hold on..why I am listing down which every Senthil,Saravanan, Sriram, Vithya, Priya and Geetha already know ( just replacing Tom, Dick, Harry, Jane,
 Judith and Jill :-) ) ....
Yes... I need to list them down even more clearly , just to show that whatsapp, facebook or what ever app you are using to connect with online is just a better means of communication..nothing more,nothing less
its not life,
its not to be an obsession,
its not your identification,
 and its imperative that it does not  disconnect you from the live people around you.. family friends and colleagues....
             To communicate to a person who is always busy texting on the mobile and making sure your message had got across to them .. for me is becoming a herculean task, Its much easier to msg them on whats app ( you can be sure they read it !! ). Parents are finding it difficult to get through to their children ( to be read as from teen age :-) ) , Wives and husbands  are finding it difficult to get through to their spouses...its a common sight these days that in dinner gatherings, each is busy on some gadget which connects you to the net......busy connecting to the world where connections in real life might be taking a toss ( not will but might ! ) 
             Its ok...its really ok not to respond to every joke, its really ok not to  respond to every group teasing , its really ok when some pictures are not shared, its really ok to get disconnected for some time.....and spend some quality time with people around you. Even Respect has been redefined ' Respect means looking at persons face when they talk to you and not at the mobile - sorry but this message too I got via whatsapp :-)  
     so...get disconnected at times.. to stay connected with life ..... :-)