Family outsourced

Aditi Garg

With the growing number of working parents and nuclear families, children are the worst sufferers. However, a new breed of professionals is ready to step in their place

Bringing back story time 

Stories are the make-believe world that kids love to dwell in. As parents move away to cities in search of livelihood, grandparents are no longer around to narrate stories that were the favourite pastime of both the kids and the grandparents. Though it is wonderful listening to stories from mom or nani or dadi, storytelling is on the wane. Like most other things in this age, an interactive story telling session can be arranged at the neighbourhood activity centre, library or even with an international artist. 

Sarah Rundle, a professional storyteller from East London, was recently in Chandigarh for a story-telling session at the British Library. She says, "More than the story itself, for kids the most important factor is the person narrating the story. And for them the charm of a parent telling a story, be it reading out from a book, making up a silly one or telling the same one for the umpteenth time, beats everything else."  

De-digitise & re-energise with exercise

The deluge of media that surrounds kids makes them believe that the only form of exercise they need is plopping on a sofa, moving about their fingers and thumb on a touchscreen or a joystick. With special classes for kids where they exercise in small groups or even one-on-one, it is only a matter of encouraging them to set aside the digital stimuli by luring them with something that will make them wilfully stay. 

Transformers — Fit Kids Club in Chandigarh, steps in to take charge and make sure kids want to exercise. With childhood obesity becoming an increasing concern for many parents, not having to push the child into exercising is a big relief. Dipti Bansal, who runs this venture, says, “We try to make the workouts fun and different to keep the boredom out." Megha Ahuja, mother of Siya, a pre-teen, says, "I sent my daughter for a trial class and she was hooked. The excuses that kept her away from exercising have taken the place of passion for Pilate, yoga, kickboxing and other forms of exercise that she now really enjoys." It sure is a win-win situation for both kids and parents. 

Neeraj Kumar of Movers’n’Shapers, also in Chandigarh, takes a different approach to kids' fitness. He says, "We take fitness outdoors where kids indulge in games like tug of war, football, pitthu garam and even treasure hunts, which are a welcome break from the endless tuitions they have."

ABC of nutrition

Junk food has become a staple with the kids. Tired parents, too, find it easy to put a smile on their kids' faces by ordering food from a fast food joint rather than cooking something. Mumbai-based Gitanjali Nistala's and her husband have demanding senior positions in the corporate sector. But they have maintained discipline in terms of food habits for their son. But she felt that there was scope for improvement despite best efforts at home. That is when she got in touch with Cafe Nutrition that organises workshops for kids regarding nutrition. "By shifting the onus of making the right choices onto the kids, they helped my son become more nutritionally aware without any pressure," she says. 

Arati Shah, nutritionist, Cafe Nutrition, Mumbai, says, "We have parents bringing their children who are playing competitive sports and need to improve their nutrition for greater endurance for peak performance, and even the fussy eaters. Our workshops and personalised consultation sessions use fun activities to create awareness about eating right."

Culturally aware

You can make up for lost story time, exercise and other things by hiring help, but can you outsource cultural teaching? It seems yes, you can. The internet is replete with advertisements for people offering to coach kids in cultural values, ethical behaviour and more. Declining quality time spent with children is the main reason why these classes are so much in demand. Delhi-based Sreenivasulu sends his kids to one such place where he wants them to learn about Indian culture as he feels that the influence of West has become much too strong. 

Chinmaya Mission at Lodhi Road, Delhi, offers free Balvihar classes every Sunday and volunteers take classes at people’s homes, too. The classes cover everything from value-based education through story telling with stories from Puranas, chanting, yoga and prayers. Sarsa Rajgopal, a volunteer, says,  "Parents are happy to send their kids to us as it is a great learning experience that helps increase the attention span. At least 40-50 kids come for the class with little parental pressure, which  shows that a good thing is appreciated by kids even if the medium is not digital," she says. 

Playtime buddies 

One of the saddest things about protected and cloistered upbringing is that even playmates for children have to be arranged for, especially in urban areas. Mothers in Gurgaon, Mumbai and other big cities are forming groups on social sites like Facebook and Meetup to get their kids some company. Some encourage their part-time domestic helps to get their kids along to play with their own kids or having families working for them stay with them in a spare room. On a positive note, there is an inclination towards arranging for a playmate for kids instead of letting them be alone and while away their time in front of the idiot box.