This is an era of social media with loads of information thrust on our face daily! There are tons of women and parenting forums out there. A lot of information is available but sometimes I feel the overload of information and “gyaan” gets onto the nerves.
My mom’s generation had no exposure of this kind. Though I sometimes feel, they missed out on a few things because of this, at the same time I feel they were a lot less burdened due to the lack of exposure. Don’t believe me?
- The war of stay-at-home moms (SAHM) versus working moms. Women in the bygone era also had working women and SAHM but I guess they did what they did without justification or fighting. Nowadays the choices are questioned, ridiculed, judged..
- Normal delivery versus cesarean section. The rate of C-section has increased a lot over the years, but this is mainly because of more awareness, medical advancement, and facilities. Still the war continues. I always believe ultimately a safe delivery is what matters.
- Breastfeeding versus formula feeding. I am done with the number of posts I have read about this! Our mom’s generation also did both feeds, may be few nosy neighbors or aunts must have given them “gyaan” but now its thrust on the face daily! New moms are literally made to feel guilty..
- Somewhere because of social media along with awareness the spontaneity and mother’s instinct of the moms gets challenged. Everything is made to be scary; be it food, school, learning to walk and what not!
- Any and everything causes cancer! I am seriously appalled to see these fake, unauthentic posts. Agreed that things are not as pure as they used to be but throwing the word cancer just like that is totally uncalled for.
- Confusing naughtiness of a child with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). A toddler will be naughty but moms using the word hyperactive casually is something that I don’t get. Our mom’s generation didn’t know about ADHD and brought us up the typical Indian way!
- Instilling scare in the moms. I read posts and blogs where moms are made to believe that scolding or punishing the child causes psychological problems or detachment in the children. I believe every mom knows her limit and she wouldn’t punish or scold her child to make him/her a psychological wreck! I guess we grew up to a lot more scoldings and sometimes spanking (I don’t support beating the child), but we didn’t start hating our parents or becoming psychologically affected.
- Make special dishes for the kids. We were served whatever was made and we ate it quietly. Special dishes were made only on special days. I believe our generation kids were a lot more non-fussy in terms of food.
- Be content with life. Our moms’ generation didn’t have a lot of luxuries like we do. But still they were content. Today thanks to social media we tend to compare our life with others. We compare the materialistic possessions, holidays, kids’ schools and growth, clothes, etc. and start feeling jealous or inferior.
- Feminism. Though feminism is a very good thing for women emancipation, sometimes I feel women going overboard and distorting feminism. There were women in the past generation who believed in feminism and gender equality, but did it in their own subtle way.
Life and its different shades 