Have children become too fragile?

Are today’s children being raised in sugar-coated environs, so cocooned by their parents that they’re oblivious to the realities of life? As an educator, I feel that we are raising a generation of fragile human beings. A friend, who is also a teacher, was admonished for having just ‘wished’ a student and not singing and dancing for their birthday! The next day the teacher had to apologise to his parents and sing for the ‘depressed’ and sulky, little one. If such an artificially simulated ambience is frequently created, the child will grow far from knowing that all is not hunky dory.

As a child, when I failed to make it to the basketball team, I learnt to face rejection. Parents have become so achievement-oriented that children are not growing up with the normal doses of failure. Children have become so thin-skinned that every little thing becomes a serious issue. If they are not given a substantial role in a play or if they do not make it to the school cricket team, the teacher is to blame – even if the rejection is legitimate.

The young must be taught to face the reality of an unequal world. As children we all took various types of food items for lunch to school, reflecting our social status. We shared each other’s food happily with no inhibitions whatsoever. But today each tiffin box must have something that’s trending. Irrespective of how much effort a mother puts in to cook some healthy snack for lunch, a child is ridiculed for eating something that is so out of vogue! It is our responsibility as parents to see that our child is comfortable with their identity.

It is good to place one’s pride in nonmaterialistic things. Children should be capable of dealing with natural inequalities with grace. Like, they should confidently be able to reject a particular unaffordable excursion.

As an educator and a mother, I believe that building my child’s mental strength and raising a robust human being is most important. Stressing on little things and scrutinising the school for it is not healthy.

- The reader is a writer based in Dubai.