Bringing Up Kids the Right Way: Parenting Lessons

By Ram Das

Nothing can be as important as our children. They are the future of our families and the world. How they grow up will depend not just on the love parents and family members give them, or how much money is spent on them. What also matters is how everyday situations are tackled. and how informed their parents are. 
Yet the pressures of everyday life can make the simplest of situations seem difficult. And adults tend to forget their own childhood. Its trials and its joys. Didn't you like it when your dad hugged you? Or when your mum encouraged you to paint or study algebra? or when you made new friends? 
How do you make a child excel? what is fatherhood? or motherhood? Why does a child fall sick often? Can you raise your child's IQ? 
These are some of the issues that this book aims to discuss. It covers parenting in the most intimate and informed way.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Winchester Publications
• Release date: Aug 6, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386225379

Book preview

Bringing up Kids the Right Way: Parenting Lessons

By

Ram Das

Published by

Winchester Publications

Goa, India 403601

[e-mail]

Copyright © 2016 Winchester Publications

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

Contents

Teach Your Kids About Money

Is he a Good Dad?

Warning: Antibiotics Could Endanger Your Child

When to Worry About Your Child’s Weight

Questions New Parents Ask Most

Make Your Child a Winner

Did you hug your child today?

What kids need most in a Dad

Help Your Child Excel

Teach Your Kids About Money

EACH YEAR, middle-class Indian children Spend hundreds of crores of rupees in pocket-money, and influence hundreds of crores more in parental expenditures. And just like adults, these kids have money problems -saving, budgeting, spending and wasting it.

Unfortunately, basic money management is rarely taught in school. And, at home, very few parents discuss money with their children. That only leaves millions of children at a disadvantage.

Many people become adults without even a cursory knowledge of personal finance," say C. Jayashankar, assistant vice president of a financial services company. Consequently, adults tend to learn money management by trial and especially error.

Kids who do learn about money early will be way ahead of the game. Just as important, learning to deal with money properly will foster discipline, good work habits and self respect. Here are seven ways you can help your children get a good grasp of how to handle money.

1. Start with an allowance an allowance can be a vital tool for teaching kids how to budget, save and make their own decisions. So instead of giving your children money whenever you feel like it, give them a fixed amount at regular intervals Children remember and learn from their mistakes when their own money is lost or Spent foolishly.

How large an allowance is appropriate? Experts say there is no right amount. According to a 1989 survey, by the market research organization Pathfinders: India, of 4,463 middle-class urban children aged between six and 19, the average monthly amounts kids got ranged from R548 in Delhi to R522 in Madras. But actual allowances differed from family to family and between different age groups.

To set an appropriate allowance for your child, work up a weekly or fortnightly budget. (Children, especially younger ones, may find a monthly allowance too much to handle.) Allow for entertainment expenditures Such as movies and snacks. Next, include everyday expenses such as bus tare. if a child is made responsible for these expenses, says M. Thomas, a Bombay chartered accountant, he or she will learn the elements of budgeting.

Finally, add some extra money to make saving possible. If you can, keep our child's allowance in line with that of his friends. A child whose purchasing power falls way below his peers’ can feel left on t; a young tycoon, on the other hand, may be tempted to Show off or buy friendships.

It can be tough but let children face the consequences of their money mistakes. When Harish Mehta was nine and growing up in Delhi, his mother gave him Rs 10 every fortnight for his bus fare to and from school. This is strictly for bus, Harish’s mother told him.

Once, Harish splurged his entire allowance on marbles; he then asked his mother for an advance. Since the school was much too far for Harish to walk to, his mother gave him the advance, but added a penalty. She’d been about to buy Harish a set of books that he'd wanted for some time, But because of the boy’s irresponsibility, Harish’s mother delayed getting the books for a month. It was very frustrating, recalls Harish, now a lieutenant in the lndian Navy. But it did teach me an important lesson.

Experts advise