Treasure grandparents

Thank you for your heart-warming cover story ‘Grandparents big pandemic comeback’ (PW December).

As a child, I grew up in a large joint family that included grandparents. They were a repository of wisdom, stories and life experiences. We learnt so much from them. Most importantly, they gave us unconditional love and emotional security.

I am pleased that grandparents have made a comeback during the pandemic. Earlier during the past decade because of the phenomenal growth of nuclear households, children were missing interactions with grandparents. Visits to grandparents’ home were confined to festivals and holidays. Gen Z needs to be encouraged to develop strong bonds with grandparents. Grandparents need to be treasured. Manvi Shah, Mumbai

Grandparents a boon

Your December cover story has rightly acknowledged the important role that grandparents played in keeping families together and functional during the pandemic. With parents stressed while working from home and children learning from home, grandparents stepped in to share household chores and child care duties. As many parents have testified in your story, their generosity in volunteering for child care has enabled several women to fulfil their higher education and career dreams.

Personally, I can’t thank my parents enough for volunteering to move in with us during the pandemic. As both of us returned to work physically in office and schools remained closed, they took charge of caring for our two children.

Maria Rodrigues, Mangalore

Big task

Your Adolescence story about how parents can effectively handle the morning rush to school was excellent (PW December).

Whether to an in-person or online school, it’s a big task to get my two children to rise early in the morning, feed them breakfast, prepare lunch and get them ready for school. Fortunately, I am still working-from-home, and am able to supervise their online classes.

Nimisha Tanmay, Delhi

Offline exams stress

As Covid-19 cases are on the rise and some states have imposed lockdowns, there is again a lot of uncertainty about school board exams.

Over the past two years, children have got used to writing tests/exams online, with many schools also conducting open book exams. With all exam boards insisting that the exams will be held offline this year, there is real apprehension that many children won’t be able to cope with the switch to offline exams.

My daughter was always an aboveaverage student but her academic performance has dropped during the pandemic. She is stressed about writing physical exams. Please write a story about how parents can prepare children for the transition from online to offline exams, to help children cope with exam stress.

Soity Mukherjee, Bengaluru

Informative & useful

My 15-year-old loved your recent Careers feature about cosmetic makeup artistry. It was very informative and useful.

I also enjoyed reading the cover story ‘Grandparents big pandemic comeback’. For several generations, within the traditional Indian joint family, grandparents have played an important role in nurturing grandchildren by providing them love, security and benefit of their life experiences.

Monica Thakur, Pune

Children’s vaccination fears

Vaccination for children in the 15-18 age group has begun in India. However I am scared and unsure about getting my 15-year-old daughter vaccinated as not much is known about the side effects of Covaxin on children. WHO is yet to approve the use of Covaxin for children.

I am not surprised that many parents still don’t want to take the risk. I hope schools and colleges will not make anti-Covid vaccination a precondition of attending in-person classes.

Marvin Thomas, Chennai