Experiences in Parenting (Part 1)

Kishore C.S. (Oct 2000)

Everyone is proud of his/her children and these articles are my attempts to put my feelings on papers that are most common. This experience creates unique moments in our life which we cherish forever and worth recalling at any time.

On becoming a parent, we become aware of the difficulties our parents have gone through in our childhood. We easily forget all the things done by our parents once we become independent, but this juncture we realize how naughty we were in our childhood and what experiences our parents have gone through because of us. We will become thankful to the efforts they have taken to bring us up bearing all the ‘highs and lows’ of parenting.

The Birth

The joy begins once we come to know that we are going to become parents. All relatives and friends congratulated us for the fact and give all the cautions one has to take. The next few months it becomes a different world. Our priorities change. ‘Child’ is the most important factor that drives our life for next few months. Regular visits to doctor for check ups and taking care of diet of mother etc become most important things. Followed by the ceremonies of the region in 7^th month, the would-be mother goes to her mother’s place for the ‘delivery’. Meanwhile father is back to a bachelor life and as the time for delivery approaches every phone call seems like ‘the time has come’.

In my case, I was there with my wife when the operation was performed. Though we decided on 8^th of December 1996 as the day of operation, because of some minor changes in health of my wife, the operation had to be done one day in advance on 7^th December 1996. Similar to the all the familiar movie scenes, we had our own waiting moments in the corridors of the hospital as we waited for the result to be known. Finally the nurse came out to announce arrival of ‘Lakshmi’ a female child in the family. Though a male child would have been welcome, I never gave a second thought to the fact that we had a female child. Every birth in family is a divine blessing and I am happy for my lovely daughter.

Initial months

The initial few months remain forever in my memory. As we stayed 10 days in hospital and we had visits from near and dear, I was the proud parent to show ‘my’ daughter to every visitor. Understand the stress on 'my'. The pride started from that time and it has been growing as I watched the child grow. Because of the fact that my wife had to operated, the doctor suggested giving an injection to the child on the first day and when I was fetching medicine I felt very sad that the child is subjected to pain on the first day itself. It was beginning of the attachment, the bond that has started the emotional surge. This continues even now and will remain forever.

Typically initial few months mean sleepless nights for parents. The child had her own schedule of sleep and food. She gets up at middle of night and starts crying for milk. Sleepless nights become common. We bear the inconvenience for the fact that the child needs our attention, love and care. With the soft and sensitive skin they look so vulnerable and we don’t want to do anything that would hurt her at that tender age.

More about my experiences in Parenting in next article.