At the best of times, parenting is a stressful and demanding obligation. In the era of the pandemic more so. During the past two years of the Covid-19 pandemic which shows no signs of going away as new variants sprout continuously, parents have been confronted with new and unprecedented challenges. With schools, colleges and universities in India closed for over 82 weeks — the world’s longest education lockdown — parents have had to take on the additional burden of tutoring and monitoring children’s online learning from home even as they struggle to cope with work from home and household chores, and deal with pandemic-induced financial and health anxieties. Parents are experiencing never-before stress in managing children and adolescents emotionally scarred by prolonged education disruption and forced home confinement.
Therefore, it’s not surprising that in these times a rising number of stressed parents are reaching out to parenting coaches to aid and advise them to navigate the unique challenges of raising children in the disruptive pandemic era. These new-age gurus with professional qualifications in child and adolescence development, psychology and counseling, are providing useful advice enabling stressed parents to cope with pandemic disruptions plus challenges such as the impact of the ubiquitous internet, all-pervasive social media and growing digital addiction among children and teens.
In our cover story this month, we discuss the rising popularity of parenting coaches who have stepped up to provide personalised professional aid, advice and mentoring to harassed parents. Within India’s post-liberalisation newly affluent nuclear households where only the best is good enough for the children, anxious parents want to equip themselves with knowledge and skills dispensed by qualified parenting experts, counselors and coaches. In this first-of-its-type story, we interview India’s leading parenting coaches who are advising parents anxious to effectively nurture children through infancy, early childhood, middle years, adolescence and even adulthood.
There’s much else in this issue of ParentsWorld. Check out our Early Childhood story on the pros and cons of co-sleeping — the practice of parents and infants sharing beds — and Special Essay on 10 parenting strategies to reduce children’s pandemic stress. Also don’t miss our Middle Years story featuring valuable guidelines to improve children’s writing skills.
Please send us your feedback on this special cover story and also first-hand reports of your experience of parenting children in the pandemic era.
