Padmini Sharma | ParentsSquare

Planning For A Child’s Own Room

Children seem to grow at a fast pace and there comes a time when she seems ready for her own room. Your child will enjoy this ‘space’ and you too, will appreciate having some quiet time during the day! However, before you go ahead with this plan, plan it out. Room at a child’s eye… [ Continue Reading → ]

The Middle Child

Siblings have their own set of joys as well as unease. Especially if you have three children. The middle child somehow seems to be a little ill at ease – neither here nor there, as one would say. In her growing years and as a middle sibling, all she needs is understanding and words of… [ Continue Reading → ]

Nerves of Steel

There is a silent change happening in some pockets of India’s social fabric: couples are adopting children with AIDS. In a country where adoption itself is looked at with mixed feelings, by and large, bringing children with AIDS within the family circle is a big leap ahead. For, overwhlemingly large sections of Indian society look… [ Continue Reading → ]

English and English only

The English language seems to have returned with a bang. One can see a marked difference in countries towards the language, from across different parts of the world. In the third week of June, the government of West Bengal announced that it has decided to reintroduce English as the language of instruction from Class I,… [ Continue Reading → ]

The Morning-after Pill

June 22: Emergency contraceptive, also known as EC, although a very common concept in the US, is quite new to India. A report compiled by the World Health Organisation (WHO) shows that the level of awareness among doctors in India is amazingly low. The Collaborative Centre for Research in Human Reproduction at WHO surveyed 50… [ Continue Reading → ]

A Miracle Birth

It was a pregnancy case that all doctors turned away from, saying that it was too risky, and the mother to be stood no chance. One doctor, a woman, came forward and helped Shanti to give birth to a child. The child she gave birth to was almost half her size. Shanti is a dwarf:… [ Continue Reading → ]

Papa, You Didn’t Tell Me

Dear Papa, I am on my way to camping on the mountains. Remember our wild trips there, every two months? Well, I have inherited your tastes in travelling, if nothing else. We have come a long way, Papa. Through my childhood, I remember, all I did was resist and all you did was preach. And… [ Continue Reading → ]

Single Parenting Made Double

My son, Adweit, peeks from the photograph lying on the desk, oblivious to the world around him. Actually no. He’s not. He’s pretty aware of what is happening. He is an amazing kid, and I often wonder how I would have coped with my ‘burden’ without him by my side. Holding my hand and showing… [ Continue Reading → ]

Congratulations – it’s a Boy!

You might think times have changed, and people don’t carry that many hang-ups as they used to. You’re mistaken. It’s sad. But true. It has been over five years now since the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PNDT) Act that bans sex-determination tests was enacted in January 1996. But few measures have been taken to ensure the… [ Continue Reading → ]

To Be Lucky or to Become Lucky…

The debate about nature versus nurture in shaping specific traits of human personality, is an old and gripping one – which behavioural aspects are influenced by genes, which ones by upbringing? What one never hears in this debate is the possibility that there might be a third alternative: the role humans play in controlling their… [ Continue Reading → ]