Manish Gajbhiye
Aurangabad, July 24:
Parents play an essential role in the life of every child. Parents protect, teach, provide and serve the child and become their role models. Children look at them for guidance during every crisis, and they get a sure solution through their experiences.
National Parents day is celebrated on the fourth Sunday of every July. This year this day is being celebrated on July 25 across the country. During the difficult time of the pandemic for over one and a half years of restrictions. It is imperative to review the impact of the pandemic on the parents-children relations. The experts opined that the pandemic had both good and bad effects on the children and the family relations. Moreover, it was the time that strengthened the parent-children ties.
Time to introspect relations
Psychiatrist Dr Mangesh Kadam said that the past one and a half years of lockdown gave the opportunity and time to both children and parents to introspect their relations. It was the phase that most of the parents utilized this opportunity to induce social, cultural, and moral values in the children. On the personal level, the parents could understand the likings, hobbies, strengths, and weaknesses of the children.
Children were dragged in the forced homestay, away from friends and schools, which led to enormous mental stress in them. The parents, by means of healthy parenting, managed to make them understand the situation and developed their ability to cope with the unavoidable situation. Parents proved a vital role in controlling stress, mental pressures, depression, anxiety etc. in children due to sudden changes in life, he said.
EQ hampered in children
Education counselor Sashimohan Sirsat opined that the initial phase of the pandemic lockdown was welcomed and enjoyed by both parents and children, and they spent quality time. However, the sudden imposed online education system had an adverse on the overall development of the students. After around three months of lockdown, parents and students were fed up with the online teaching systems and were bored of it. It affected the speed and accuracy of the students. Barring listening, the students were not involved in the other aspects of learning like writing, assimilating, and observation. Even the parents were not able to evaluate and understand this situation. The newly imposed system has not impacted the Intelligent Quotient (IQ) of students but the Emotional Quotient (EQ) was hampered, especially among the children between the age group of 5 and 12 years. Moreover, the children were attracted towards mobile phones through online games and objectionable content, Sirsat said.
Spent quality time
Supriya Surana, a parent, observes that she could spend quality time with the children during the period of over one and a half years. Never before could she spent such an enormous time with the children at home due to the busiest schedules. The children developed a sense of responsibility as they could spend the time with the family members. The sense of bonding among the siblings and respect towards the elders developed among them. The parents were also able to keep a close watch on the activities and behaviour of the children. Moreover, it provided opportunities to nurture their inherent talents, she mentioned.
Advantages and Disadvantages
Pramod Rathod, a parent, said that this phase had both advantages and disadvantages. The advantage was the opportunity to develop closeness and enhance understanding. The parents were also able to see and keep a watch on the children during their online classes. However, not all the children adjusted to this newly imposed system, and many of them had incurred academic losses. Financial instability had an adverse effect on meeting the academic expenses. Moreover, the physical inactivity made the children lethargic. However, the parents had skillfully handled the situation by providing maximum time to the children.