PW invited parents of Manav Rachna International School, Gurugram to share a New Year resolution that made a great impact on their children

Setting new goals for most of us is the normal thing to do around New Year. But 2020 broke this habit and ushered in a pandemic world with lockdowns of education institutions and workplaces, and living in fear of losing near and dear ones. A few months into the pandemic year, we promised each other to live for the present and take each day as a fresh beginning. I was pleasantly surprised when my teenage daughter Palak (class IX) took things very seriously. She made an effort to revive old friendships, revisited the madness of excelling in academics, expressed her insecurities openly, and reassessed life’s failures and successes.” — Hemlata Gurnani, French language tutor.

“ I strongly believe that if parents become partners in their children’s New Year resolutions, they become fun as well as lessons for all of us. With the same belief, our family decided to make punctuality our collective New Year resolution. Even a minute’s delay would result in penalty we decided. And the penalty was to pay a Rs.10 note into a collection box. For my son Archit (class XI), the penalty meant losing precious pocket money that he has been carefully saving up for years to invest in something big. Believe me, he now wakes up on time and is very prompt in executing any activity related to school or the household.” — Ruchi Garg, homemaker.

As my son Arinjoy turned all of eight, we decided to choose a more ‘serious’ New Year resolution for him. Arinjoy loves to hoard books and toys he has outgrown even as they gather dust. The resolution we set for him this year was to make a selection of books and toys to give away to children who need and will appreciate them better. After an initial emotional struggle, he selected a few to give away to our security guard’s little daughter. A meeting was arranged. My son was delighted to see the happy little girl clutching her bag of goodies. Since the experience, Arinjoy has learnt the value of giving and promises to follow this resolution for the rest of his life.” — Shatarupa Basu, senior editor, Dorling Kindersley.

Most of us start teaching our children to become independent from youngest age. But in 2021 I requested my son Atharv (class V) to learn to “ask for help” as his New Year resolution because that’s important too! I wanted him to understand that asking for help is also an emotion to be experienced, and that there is nothing wrong in seeking others’ support. I believe we can set our children on the correct path of life only when they open up to confide in their parents and share their thoughts.” — Sumita Tiwary, founder, Aerofly.