Today, the world is going through one of the most gruesome situations in human history. This novel “coronavirus” or COVID-19 came as a hidden enemy and hit the weakest point of the human race i.e. social bonding. This bonding is a building block for every human residing in any corner of the world. This truly makes us unbeatable or rather invincible in every sphere of life. Many of our infrastructures are developed to share this bonding in the form of sentiments. And today this bonding is in threat. Of course, once again technology is leading the war and helping humanity to fight this pandemic in all possible ways. 

However, technology cannot restrain our emotions; it can help in rejuvenation but cannot replace a physical bonding. Self isolation created due to this pandemic is creating enormous psychological barriers. It has almost ruined everybody’s life.  

 And in current situation, one of the worst affected people in this pandemic is these naive children. Their unleashed imaginations are wrapped under the carpet of self isolation. Imagine a situation where the mother is corona positive and the child is corona negative. These daunting circumstances are creating distress, anxiety and affecting mental health of parents as well as children. For most of the parents, it’s a herculean task to keep them happy and engaged, especially when a child is hyperactive and over demanding.

Apart from you tube kids and cartoon networks, to cope up with this pandemic, here are 5 little tricks of parenting in pandemic.

• Gardening

Children find their pursuit of happiness in nature more than anywhere else. They keep exploring nature's most minuscule things for hours without disturbing us. But in this situation when we cannot go outside, it is better to engage them in an activity they love. And perhaps gardening is the best way of learning new things. While gardening they think of themselves as a creator and try to reciprocate nature by keeping strict vigilance on each and every corner of the garden. Preparing for a new plantation, watering it every day and watching them grow keeps them engaged for hours. Even for grownups, if I am not wrong, we are still thrilled with nature’s nature. Plants like “touch me not” fill us with greater excitement.

• Sketching

Sketching gives shape to all those bizarre imaginations of children and colors fill their hypothetical arena with blushing brightness. Painting is the second best thing to engage our child in the most creative way. It can be fun watching them draw their favorite superheroes and act accordingly. Drawing Mickey Mouse on their favorite baseball or Donald duck on their favorite water bottle still makes lots of sense. True to their affinity, they take a deep dive in their imaginary world to unleash the potential of their creation. This phenomenon enriches them to shape their analytical thinking.               

• Bathing

Out of all three superpowers of nature, water has the most soothing side effect on our body. Probably this may be the reason why every little child loves to play with water. Guessing pictures out of water droplets, washing their lovable toys, dancing under the fountain, beating baskets as a drum and playing with foam is their favorite time pass. Undoubtedly taking bath is third in my list to keep them engaged almost every day with little or no intervention by parents. It also acts as a tranquilizer to make them sleep. 

• Cooking

Children are always fascinated by the taste of food cooked by their beloved mother. They also want to be like her, they want to cook. Letting them litter flour, taking out peas from its cover, playing with dough or preparing stuff for baking cookies is a heartwarming fun filled activity. Letting them understand the importance of eating healthy supplements is the most important part of involving children. They eagerly want to learn until they understand it is not their cup of tea.

• Games

Children like to play with toys, but it cannot fulfill their desire unless we get engaged with them. They are looking at us as a partner with whom they can learn some mystic mantra to impress their best friends in the future. This is a perfect time to reinvent the wheel of traditional indoor games like hide and seek, ludo, chess, carom, playing cards or making house of pillows and many more to keep them engaged. Parents are best friends with their children, and can make a sea change in their behavior if they start getting engaged in activities they like most.

 Happy parenting!

 

Let’s come, you are whole heartedly invited to understand our rich heritage. Come on, we will show you glimpse of our legendary culture where bringing a life is always considered as most sacred ritual. These rituals mark the remarkable journey of motherhood which has several milestones and all these milestones are celebrated as a grand festival. Apart from singing and dancing, this colorful custom brings lots of cheerful moments. Although we give it a name of rituals but these customs have scientific importance in our life. Let’s come, we will mention some of these life hack moments of pregnancy and post pregnancy matters in the form of rituals.

•  Significance of baby shower
  

After conceiving and successfully completing first two trimesters, third trimester is considered as a second milestone for a mother. This auspicious occasion is celebrated as “Baby shower” in seventh month of pregnancy. It is a kind of formal announcement in the society that particular lady is pregnant and expecting a baby. A genuine question! Why in third trimester? It’s because we believe that if fetus survived till third trimester then there is a little chance of miscarriage. Because of rapid development in technology we can see baby’s growth using modern ultrasound method, but previously this was a major sign of healthy mother and a baby. 

The preparation starts with formal invitation to all women who already has given birth. They console the mother and prepare her for next milestone. Lots of fatalities were reported before medical era, it is like a new birth for a mother therefore counterparts share their experience, mid age share their suggestions and age old people share their blessing to successfully achieve third milestone of delivering a healthy baby. In present situation all these roles is getting fulfilled by gynecologist, despite that it has not lost its charm and gives a psychological boost to women before going through labor pain.

Apart from fine dining, local folk song and folk dance is a major attraction. Entire process brings a harmony in behavior of to-be-mother and empathize her to understand the journey of motherhood. Based on region, religion and availability of food, these suggestions may vary, but it is always advised to do squat exercise and take greasy food items which increases lubrication in body. All these suggestions are carried forward from refined experiences of mother from one generation to another. Earlier when normal delivery was the only option, these suggestions played a life saving techniques and these techniques also improvise breast milk

• Massage for mother
  

Once delivered, baby is wrapped in used linen. Simple, we cannot believe new cloth which may cause rashes to new born baby and mother is relaxed using massage therapy to bear the agony of labor pain.

• Purification of house
  

Exactly after six days entire house is cleaned by near and dear ones to maintain enough hygiene for mother as well as child. This custom is called “chatti” meaning sixth day. So, why it is cleaned on sixth day? It is because earlier when babies used to deliver in house, lots of human bio waste used to come along with baby and mother used to bleed for next six days therefore it was mandatory to do purification and take precautionary measures to provide necessary hygiene. Both mother and child take formal bath and wear new clothes. Although it has lost its significance in present context but these customs shows the importance of cleanliness.  

Today technology has narrowed down the gap of survival and solving some of the age old problems with an ease. But these technologies are slowly ruining our environment and making it unsustainable for living. Our ancestors on the other hand were part of the nature and taught those lessons they learned as a form of rituals and custom

• Benefits of wearing black thread 
  

Afterwards all soft joints of baby like ankle, wrist, neck and waist is tied with thick black thread. It is believed that because of baby’s beauty, they attract lots of evil attention, and these threads helps in protecting baby from all those evil eyes. However, this is not the actual reason, these threads absorb lots of oil at the time of massage and through skin it reaches to bone and thus helps in forming strong joints.  It is observed scientifically that babies those who are massaged regularly are able to withstand earlier than those who are not massaged.  This ritual is called “Daanda karan” or wearing black thread.

Some suggestions for normal delivery

Some suggestions for availability of breast milk.

Happy Parenting!