Parenting Woes

The toughest job in the world is parenting and this I realized when last year I quit my job and opted to take a break from my professional life, so that I could spend more quality time with my daughter. Now that I’m back to working all the difficulties of balancing of professional and personal life are back.

As a working woman, I spend an average of 4 to 5 hours during the weekdays with my child, and the task that gets me most worked up is feeding dinner to her. When she was 2 years old, I had to employ all tactics that I was aware of to get her to eat few morsels of food. I used to take her outside and try to distract her with sounds and sights of nature (of course it was pitch dark so she was not so easily distracted), I tried to feed her while showing cartoons on TV, I threatened, bribed, begged-all my creative talents came to the fore in those 45 minutes and at the end of dinner time, it was like the end of a war. Sometimes won, sometimes lost.

Some practical mothers would advise me not to fuss too much over the child’s eating. Do not give options, do not create distractions, just put the plate in front of her and when she’s hungry , she will eat. That does sound too good in words but in reality-well, let’s just say that the food ended up everywhere in the house except in her mouth. And the end result? A cranky kid in the middle of the night demanding food. And a cranky mom in the office next day.

As a working mom, I can say that my biggest anxiety is how to provide her the required nutrition. How to get her to eat the veggies and fruits. My daughter is 4 years old now and fortunately she is not that fussy at dinnertime but she still refuses to eat vegetables. Also since we don’t eat non-vegetarian food, she is missing out on vital nutrients. In this competitive and fast modern world I don’t want my daughter to be left behind just because she is not eating proper food. She studies in Kinder Garten and the homework that she brings home every day make me wonder how I coped when I was her age.

I’m sure that most mothers would agree when I say that a major concern of every mother is the overall development of a child-both physically and intellectual growth. My daughter is at a vital age of development. She is physically active and she is curious about so many things that she sees. I realize this from the questions she asks-just the other day she asked me why fishes have fins and not hands and legs. I may not have the right answer every time for her questions but I can ensure that she receives proper nourishment to aid her growth.

Fortunately my daughter loves to drink milk and the essential vitamins she misses when she refuses to eat her veggies can be provided by health drinks like Horlicks Growth+ which help in weight gain in kids and support complete all round development. My daughter starts her day around 7.30 in the morning and I make sure that the first food she has, is a tall glass of milk fortified and made more appetizing by Horlicks. Her hours are similar to mine-she goes to school between 8 and 12 in the morning and then to her daycare. She comes home only at 7 in the evening.

When I’m in office I worry about her- if she’s eating well, if she gets along with her friends, if she can cope up with her studies and if she misses her home and mummy. So as I said in the beginning, parenting is tough, your kids can try your patience to no end, it can leave you frustrated and helpless at times. But when at night my daughter holds me tightly and goes to sleep, I feel that I can do the whole thing all again, I feel it’s all worth it.