I'm so old fashioned!

And then there was this other piece today about ‘virtual parenting’. So working parents these days are resorting to CCTVs to keep track of what their children are upto? I don’t mean to sound critical or judgmental, I perfectly understand being busy and yet wanting to keep an eye on your child, but CCTVs? Really? Have these parents stopped to consider what effect this constant surveillance may have on the children? It’s the sort of thing you do to keep thieves out of the premises, not children out of mischief. Have they thought of the skewed idea of freedom that their children may grow up with. And of trust? Do they understand that they may be bringing up children who might never quite learn to be themselves because they are always being watched? Or who behave themselves only because they are being watched? The natural corollary to which would be the temptation to misuse freedom, that is bound to arise when they actually have the opportunity for it?
Whatever happened to the ‘sanskar’ that you are meant to pass on your children- a sense of discipline, that comes from within and doesn’t have its roots in a fear of being found out. I have always been opposed to the idea of inculcating values in children through a fear of punishment as opposed to the genuine desire to be good. As a result, I feel we end up raising kids who lack the ability to think for themselves. There is so much emphasis on absolutes- on the right ‘things’ to do, and not enough on building a moral compass so they can intuitively tell right from wrong.
It’s difficult I understand, bringing up children well, especially in today’s day and age where distractions and temptations abound. But to add to that such a dubious measure, with such long-term repercussions, is rather unfair to our future generations.

When we don't ask the right questions...

So this article in HT the other day, ‘Upset’ house help hurls 1-year-old from terrace', really bothered me. Check out the way it begins, ‘Byculla-based builder, Akhil Khakre, 47, brought home a girl to save her from a life on the streets. But he didn’t know that the girl would repay his kindness by trying to kill his one-year-old son.’ It goes on to say that the girl, all of 13, allegedly flung Khakre’s son from the terrace flat of a four story building because she was upset at being scolded for having broken a plate while washing utensils, an incident that had happened three days before.
So here it is then- a 13 year old picked up from the street and brought home, to be ‘educated’ and ‘assisting in domestic chores.’ While the incident is alarming in itself- people can just pick children up off the streets these days? Oh wait, who am I kidding, it happens all the time, doesn’t it?- what was equally shocking for me was the reportage. This stupid correspondent actually begins by attempting to paint a favourable picture of Khakre?!
The incident is distressing, I understand. And my heart does go out to the family, but that does not absolve Khakre in any way of having employed child labour. My heart goes out equally to the little girl, who may well have been abused, physically and mentally, for her to have taken such an extreme step. HT followed it up with another story that said ‘Byculla maid didn’t realise she would hurt the child: Cops.’ Huh? Which 13 year old does not understand that you can hurt a baby by throwing him around, let alone from the fourth floor?
This is seriously faulty reporting for all the questions that it fails to ask.