Of parents and ponderings

The biggest plus of this lockdown is the amount of time parents get to spend with their kids. Like anything in excess that always have a flip side, too much of parenting is what it may lead to I fear. As a generation, the parents of this era are neither aware of old world wisdom, nor or they full blown dedicated to have an undistracted time with their kids, which can be spent on productive measures on development of their kids abilities. The bane of this generation and the previous one being, too much of devices and over dependence on outside information, majority of which are useless and used less. The challenge faced by grand parents is something similar. Beyond a limit, keeping abreast of the fast changing tech world of gadgets is quite a task, even for those who are related to that industry. Expecting the geriatric generation to keep pace with kids of 2020 would be too much of an ask. At the same time, the role of grandparents have never been more felt and needed, for they have seen the world without gadgets and have been initiated into one with them. Kids needs their grandparents like never before to tame them and calm them. To show them how to balance life between what attracts them and what they should get focused on. For parents, it is a cushy spot between the devil and deep blue sea. They themselves are a generation under transition, slowly and very slowly getting to know the gadget world better, falling and steadying against the pit falls. With very little reliable guidance available, it is not an enviable task to say the least.
With this picture, add additional hours that one get to spend with their kids, the guilt of wanting to make it as much profitable and useful as possible, as against the cluelessness of what can be done, puts everyone in a spot. May be, being away from home for 9 hours, was a mean to get one rejuvenated, not to think more of what they can do for their kids, but less on the very same topic. It really scares to think of the amount of exposure they get at the swipe of their fingers and trying to put a  fence to prevent wind has never been a winning solution. At the same time, the ease with which they adapt to the new setup is something that has to be seen to be appreciated. Makes one wonder how they would’ve coped up with such setup at similar age and leaves one feeling awestruck. All said and done, with this new normal, it is going to be a real challenge to get back to the older ways of working and parenting for both the kids and the parents would’ve gotten quite used to this setup. It is going to be quite painful to sit in office and think of home or in a classroom wondering when the next pandemic will strike, resulting on spending more time at play within the confines of home. Like everything else, there are going to be lot of things to unlearn and relearn. If not for adaptation, we would’ve never survived for so long, isn’t it?