Monday, December 15, 2008

Apartment living – save or safe

In today’s nuclear family life; staying in an apartment is always safer and has its advantages like socializing, safe children play areas and security.
But on the flip side, children are never satisfied with what they have……
It is always the comparison that happens among them. If one buys a playstation the other should have the one that is superior than that. The social peer-to-peer pressure is what shapes the thoughts and actions of young minds.
The other day a five year old girl was standing in a corner, looking a bit down. I went near her and asked that why she was standing alone. The reply was “I am sad”. Then I asked her the reason – the reply was “My friend is happy because she has got a new cycle and I am sad because I am using the old one”. I was really surprised to hear this from her.
Apartment life is a community living. So, the parents can neither lock the child inside and not sending him/her out to play nor they can explain the five year old kid about the financial status of the family.
Apartment living is “safe”. But to “save” the children from falling into such thoughts is a difficult task for the parents.

4 comments:

Rama said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Rama said...

Nice read...If you say apt living is pricey..you should come here to US to see how parents spend recklessly on toys for kids..A girl child will have min of 10 baby dolls and boys will have dozens of dinosaurs and cars...
I always felt the child will never learn the value of the money or even the doll, when they have too much of one thing. I always felt happy everytime Ananya referred to "Sundu" as being her younger brother..even though it is dirty and shabby with the child's maintanence..she values the doll and considers him as his brother...

Not to mention the lavish b'day parties a child demands and the expensive gifts he/she expects..or even the barbie/dinosaur/disney cake they ask for..Even parents tend to overspend/overdo such things for the sake showing status among frnds..I used to wonder..Gone are those days when we used to wear "1" new dress..early morning and take a box of chocolates, carefully counted previous night..go and give them to neighbours and recieve blessing by doing namaskaram and most imp the b'day song the whole class sings for you...I cherish those days of mine and always b'day's were a very very special day..

Guru.B.Mhanyan said...

Ammavasaikkum Abdul Qadarukkum enna sambandam????

Extravagance is not limited to geographical boundaries, rather is a direct function of affluence. And, the need to fill your child's life with toys is because of the void created by you when you chose to work away from the child's myriad family like the grand parents, aunts and uncles. What they lose in terms of affection, we are but trying to fill with cheap substitutes.

Visalakshi said...

I completely agree with BG3. We decide our life styles. True, children are driven by what other kids have. But, what to say of parents who are willing to trade in their old good car to a swanky new one because his colleague has the latest model!!