What’s new about it? Do we have anything to add to this perennial flow and show of love, affection and care, passing on, relentlessly through generations? Yes, parenthood has no break, no pauses – it is an incessant activity, the beauty of which lies in its ceaselessness, in its bounty, in its eternity.

Ask any parent what his/her happiest moment is – pat would come the reply – “the day my bundle of joy came into my life” – the time, one becomes a parent and all other roles take a back stage. The whole world comes to a standstill – all one can hear is the first cry of one’s baby.

I had parents, they had parents, and they too had parents. I am a parent. It is only when I don this role; I realize the value and worth of parents in the life of every individual. The value of parents is priceless, nothing that money can buy!

I have been playing this role, efficiently well, at least that is what I would like to think, for the past fifteen years – I have nestled my baby with care and cradled her with love, and this is no mean experience – it is experience enough to be able to write on this all-pervasive topic, “Parenting”.  Parenting, like humanity, has no bounds – its expanse is infinite, it pervades all lands and transcends all barriers.

Going by the dictionary meaning, Parenting or child rearing is the process of promoting and supporting the physical, emotional, social, financial, and intellectual development of a child from infancy to adulthood. Parenting refers to the aspects of raising a child aside from the biological relationship.

Does that sum it all?

Yes, to get to the meaning, but that isn’t all. It has deeper connotations. Parenting requires more than limitless amounts of patience. The only bond where there is unconditional love. Parenting involves preservation – the safeguarding of values, culture, ethos, relationships, the good, and its demarcation from the bad and the ugly. Parenting involves imparting this knowledge to the future, the importance of being virtuous, by being virtuous. Parenting is a heritage, parenting is a legacy. Parenting is continual.

Surprisingly, parenting is a process of unlearning, rather than learning. It is only if we unlearn the malice, greed, and the worldly sins, that we have amassed, can we be pure and pious enough to preserve the child’s pristine innocence and glory – retain the blemish-free fairness, the immaculate chastity, as bestowed when the child first comes into this world.

This is debatable – If we tend to preserve the innocence of the child, how would we arm them to fight life’s battles, prepare them to emerge victorious against all odds, energize and equip them for self-defense, muster their courage to face the highs and lows of life and look onto the multitude of vistas that life has to offer? Every parent has the fear of losing the child in this big, bad world. Rather, if every parent would raise the child to make the world a better place to live in, what a beautiful place the world would be. Thus, the answer lies in the upbringing.

Parenting involves involvement and getting the child involved in the learning process – reaching the small little milestones – standing up without support, the first few baby steps, the first few baby talks, going to school alone, or on a higher plane, learning life skills and carving a niche. The child not only needs to be nurtured, but needs to be groomed to become a noble world citizen. This can be done by inducing values, virtues and embedding the right temperament, the right attitude, empathy and the essence of right conduct and right behavior. Unless we, as parents are perfect, the purpose of inculcating such qualities stands defeated. We need to set the example, lay the foundation and the path for them to follow, and for their children to follow, just as we have been following the lineage traversing down ages.

Believe in yourself! Believe in your child! Share their dreams, their aspirations; ensure their ambition does not take a toll of their aspirations. Gift them hope, gift them freedom – freedom of choice,  freedom to fly independently in the azure sky, gift them yourself – your unconditional love, trust them for what they are and what they want to be, not what they ought to be and how you want them to be. That would be the greatest gift. Gift them your time, gift them your presence, for every child is gifted. Love them and respect them. Treat them as fellow beings – they will learn how to be fellow beings, coz every child is a GIFT – rare, precious and shining, endowed with a unique and untapped talent! Yes, very aptly said, they are the “Taare Zameen Par!” – “The Shining Stars on Earth!”