Timely & relevant
Congratulations for publishing an excellent parenting magazine. The stories are timely and relevant and address pressing parenting problems.
I specially liked your Ask the Doctor and Ask Your Counsellor columns. The most important concern of parents is children’s physical and mental health and it’s very reassuring to read expert opinion on how to cope with child health problems.
I also liked the Fun with Words, Recipes and Careers sections. The new work from home phenomenon has prompted many parents including myself to try their hand at new recipes and foods.
Vaishali Menon
Chennai
Sleeping well matters
Today’s parents — and children — indeed suffer FOMO — fear of missing out. There has been an explosion in the number of entertainment options, and limited time. Especially with children, the only free time they get for entertainment is after dinner, i.e, after school, tuitions and homework.
That’s when they want to watch television and/or browse their phones. This has resulted in most children losing precious sleep. As you write in the latest cover story on the importance of sleep, inadequate sleep can cause long-term damage to children’s physical and psychological health. Good sleep is imperative to children’s optimal physical development.
I liked your suggestions on how to keep children off digital devices before bed time. Though it will be difficult to convince our children to reduce screen time, sleeping well matters for their health and well-being.
Shefali Vinayak
Mumbai
Informative essay
Thank you for the very informative Early Childhood essay on speech and language development milestones by Dr. Sailaja Pisapati. I have a seven-month-old baby girl and will definitely watch out for these speech milestones.
I’ve also been reading that 80 percent of a child’s brain develops by three years of age. Many parents tend to ignore brain development in the first three years, focusing more on physical development. Please do publish more such informative essays on how parents can proactively stimulate youngest children’s cognitive abilities.
Rishika Mathur
Delhi
Build an empathetic society
Thank you for the Ask Your Counselor column ‘Autism signs and symptoms’ (PW February). Ritu Jain’s advice was enlightening, especially the list of autism symptoms parents should look out for in the early years. Many children with mild autism are diagnosed late, limiting the options for treatment.
I am a teacher and have noticed that the number of children with special needs and learning disabilities has increased over the years. In our school we do our best to integrate them into the mainstream. However I believe not just teachers and parents, society at large needs to be educated about the importance of enabling and empowering children with special needs. Parents of children with special needs also need support from family, friends and society. We need to build a society that understands, is empathetic and enables children with special needs.
Lisa Abraham
Trivandrum
Greater responsibility
I am mother to a teenage girl. Lately I have noticed that many in her peer group are super stressed about exams, meeting high parental expectations and the demands of social media. Sadly, even though there’s a lot of talk about mental health and well-being, our children are not getting the support they need from parents and teachers.
As parents, I believe we have a greater responsibility to provide emotional support and mentoring to our children. Most important, we need to closely monitor teenage children’s activities and watch out for symptoms of anxiety and depression. I would love to see more stories in PW on child mental health and well-being.
Ramya Sridhar
Bengaluru
