My 11 year old son Neel. The first baby of our family, our first bundle of joy. Children go through their own phases in life . An infant , then a toddler, a child , a growing child , a tween (new one this), a teen /adolescent and so on. But the baby for us is a baby.
We moved to Sydney from Mumbai early July 2020. It was a smooth transition for us, including the kids.Its Neel's last year in Primary School , he is in Year 6. From Jan 2021 off he goes to a High School with its own set of challenges. Here in Australia, Year 7 students even travel on their own - whether bus , cycle, train and hence are more or less independent.
With the world changing so much from the time I was a kid and with kids growing faster than they should, it is also important to be in touch with their mental state. I try to have this on and off one on one chat with Neel , generally about anything. Nowadays I keep talking about how he needs to be aware of his surroundings, people around , changes in physical attributes etc. This is usually the age when girls attain puberty. A few weeks ago i tried having a tete a tete with him about what what menstruation is . I tell him that he might see classmates with stained clothes and he should be aware that its a normal growing up process and not something he needs to be amused about. He is obviously not comfortable with the discussion and vanishes into thin air . Till another day , on that.
This is also the time i have been talking about habits (bad ones) that kids get into , mostly out of peer pressure - Whether its drugs or smoking .. I stop at that...
As a parting note I always end my chat with the standard dialogue "anytime anything you need to discuss , you feel the need to tell me , even if you are in the wrong , do not hesitate to tell me and I promise you I will try my best to get it sorted, as long as you realize, something is not right".... That is quite a bit of gyaan for today... Off I go...
We moved to Sydney from Mumbai early July 2020. It was a smooth transition for us, including the kids.Its Neel's last year in Primary School , he is in Year 6. From Jan 2021 off he goes to a High School with its own set of challenges. Here in Australia, Year 7 students even travel on their own - whether bus , cycle, train and hence are more or less independent.
With the world changing so much from the time I was a kid and with kids growing faster than they should, it is also important to be in touch with their mental state. I try to have this on and off one on one chat with Neel , generally about anything. Nowadays I keep talking about how he needs to be aware of his surroundings, people around , changes in physical attributes etc. This is usually the age when girls attain puberty. A few weeks ago i tried having a tete a tete with him about what what menstruation is . I tell him that he might see classmates with stained clothes and he should be aware that its a normal growing up process and not something he needs to be amused about. He is obviously not comfortable with the discussion and vanishes into thin air . Till another day , on that.
This is also the time i have been talking about habits (bad ones) that kids get into , mostly out of peer pressure - Whether its drugs or smoking .. I stop at that...
As a parting note I always end my chat with the standard dialogue "anytime anything you need to discuss , you feel the need to tell me , even if you are in the wrong , do not hesitate to tell me and I promise you I will try my best to get it sorted, as long as you realize, something is not right".... That is quite a bit of gyaan for today... Off I go...
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