There is no universal parameter to judge the parenting style. There should not be any, because parenting style is anyway a subjective phenomenon. In this saga of socialization, it is equally important to also continuously introspect upon the pattern, style and attitude of parenting. As it is commonly known that parenting is indirectly responsible for the culture of social development, civic cooperation and cognitive personality. Given the Indian context, parenting is usually inured with conservative outlook and peer pressure. Parenting is an art as well as a science, followed with a general belief that parenting is a social onus because parents are the primary “agents of socialization”, here.
This blog is a prolusion on the nature of Indian parenting, linked with the performance of economic growth of India. It is very essential to highlight the relationship between Indian parenting and economic growth because economic growth is also in a relationship with the social cognition of leaders, supporters and policy designers. “What parents teach to their kids?”, “How parents do the conditioning?” and “Where do the parents go wrong without noticing?” are the three important questions serving as a base of my understanding, with reference to the theme of this blog.
Conservative parents generally believe that conventional way of parenting assures sound outcome in their family and community. But, this is generally not a good case. Conventional way of parenting usually infringes upon the scope and scale of liberal and creative thinking, which limits the attitude and perspectives of the kids. It may be a disciplinary method to justify spanking, but it does not liberate the kids from the psychological shackles. On the other side of our reality, Indian economy is in dearth of free thinking, economic liberalism and open society. Indian economy may have liberalized and globalized her territory, since 1991, but many features of our economical machineries are infected with the “license raj syndrome”. Just look at how the market entities await for “permission” from the omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent character of the “modern” government, in today’s epoch.
Whereas, an unconventional way of parenting is directly linked to the creation of libertarian thinking. The only school of thought that can help India become a richer nation is libertarianism. Libertarian way of parenting can help our generation become the “actual” change-makers, as it’s the only school of thought that believes in freeing the people from the interventionist nature of the government. Higher the government interventionism, lesser the market freedom. Lesser the market freedom, higher the poverty. It’s evident, if you examine the global ranking of India’s economic freedom (130/190 nations), free speech (138/190 nations), happiness index (133/190 nations) and gender inequality index (125/190 nations).
Yes, Indian parents spend 12 hours a week on average with their kids doing homework, compared to England (4 hours a week) and China (8 hours a week), according to a survey published on Times of India in May 2018, but spending time on doing homework is not everything…when 77.5% Indian parents “often” resort to domestic violence against their kids respectively. Beating or spanking our kids, according to psychology, is a bad scientific approach to discipline the behavior and personality. When these kids grow up, they end up possessing more tyrannical tendencies which would only benefit the mechanical growth of statism or parasitical politics. Indian economy can attain speedy prosperity, when our kids or new generation are taught about the art of libertarianism and not statism. As there goes a saying “charity begins at home”.
On a positive note, 78% of Indian parents believe in complete overhaul of India’s education system. An online survey by Local Circles (April 2018), which can be an eye-opener for the government, revealed it. These parents are expecting the government to generate syllabi that focuses more on skill development and market-oriented jobs, which would serve as a barometer for the skillful development of Indian economy. Along with that, before our civilization is sorry, there’s a dire need to revamp the cognitive system of Indian parenting too.
