Brilliant advice

I love reading the ‘Your counsellor replies’ column by parenting coach Dr. Pallavi Chaturvedi. Her parenting advice is always relevant and applicable. In her January column she gave brilliant advice about how in large families parents can teach children the value of money.

Also many thanks for the essay ‘Helping children with homework’. It was timely because with online schooling there’s a lot of pressure on parents to help children complete homework and assignments. Many schools load children with unnecessary homework and parents have no option but to help out.

Vinaya Sailen

Delhi

Also read: Helping children with homework

Welcome optimism

The New Year began on a grim note, with the Omicron variant of the Coronavirus causing a huge surge in infections across the country forcing government to impose curbs and restrictions. Also, schools closed down once again to check the spread of the new variant. Therefore your January cover story ‘2022: Make a positive start’ was a welcome breath of fresh air and optimism.

In the midst of all the pandemic gloom and doom, it’s important to be positive about the New Year. As you suggest, families should start 2022 on a fresh note and set achievable familial and personal goals. Parents should motivate children to make New Year resolutions. I especially liked your health and fitness goals suggestions. Two years of the pandemic have made many parents realise that good health and nutrition is the prerequisite of leading a productive life.

Ramyashree Nanda

Hyderabad

Informative & enlightening

The stories in ParentsWorld are informative and interesting. I really enjoyed reading the ‘Fun with Words’ section on zeugma (PW January). It’s something we look forward to in every issue. Also the counselling advice by Dr. Pallavi Chaturvedi and Ask the Doctor by Dr. Rashmi Ravindra were very enlightening.

I request you to include a page on the latest Internet resources and mobile apps that are useful to parents and children. There’s a wealth of information online and a reviews page written by experts will help parents choose the best education/entertainment resources for children.

Maria D’Souza

Mumbai.

Quality family time priority

Your cover story ‘2022: Make a positive start’ (PW January) was inspiring. Fifteen years ago as a MBA student, I used set myself yearly goals and made sure I achieved at least half of them. But now with two children, work, and a host of things to do, I haven’t made New Year resolutions for a long time. After reading your story, I realised that setting goals and making resolutions enables children and young people to draw up priorities and work towards achieving them.

Also the global Covid-19 pandemic has taught all of us the importance of family relationships. In the New Year I have resolved to spend quality time with my two children. Many life skills are learnt by children in informal home-settings and I hope in 2022 I will able to engage them in skills-building family activities.

Preethi Varma

Mumbai

New mom woes

Your recovery advice for new moms was excellent (‘Early Childhood’, PW January). Motherhood is not as rosy and blissful as people hype it to be. While your infant does bring you a lot of happiness, caring for the baby including changing diapers day after day is not blissful. Sleep patterns of new moms are also disrupted and most experience constant fatigue and tiredness.

Sadly, in most Indian households infant care is believed to be the duty of the mother with male parents seldom helping out. New moms need all the help they can get as they struggle to recover from the physical strain of pregnancy and childbirth and prepare themselves to take on child care duties.

Roshni Mishra

Bengaluru