Solo Parenting – modern day dilemma, compulsion or fashion?
Parenting in today’s complex world, is more complicated than the present senior generation (people born before 1960) could ever imagine. Till about 50 years back, parenting was never looked at as an issue requiring any special skills – children just grew up without so much fuss, and in the company of their cousins as part of the large/ joint family system. Both parents were, most of the times, available to their children – except those few who were in frequent transferrable jobs.
However, in the present scenario, we have a wide range of variations of a family. The joint family system has almost disappeared, and lately even the nuclear family is in a transition phase - showing all signs
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The child should always feel loved, wanted, secured at all times, and be permitted to form healthy relationship with peers. The child’s mind need not be poisoned with bitterness, anger, hatred or cynicism about the other parent, or life in general, because of one’s own insecurities and unresolved feelings. The child should be encouraged to take responsibilities for such things that he/ she is able to do independently, besides being involved in small household chores.
In the end, being a single parent may feel like a difficult journey to start with but acceptance, patience and emotional strength can turn it out to be a joyful adventure that could redefine his/ her life and that of the children.
Perhaps, in another 20 years or so, many successful people and community leaders of that period are expected to be from single-parent families. Going by such trends, we - as compassionate people with some wisdom - need to be concerned now, and look at if that generation children would grow up to be fully-functional individuals, or would they be vulnerable and emotionally less resilient?
What kind of parenting style would they be opting for, or what all life-options will they have to choose from, to finally arrive at decisions best suited to them under those prevailing