Prof Shiv Sethi
Undoubtedly, it is quite an easy task to become a biological father or mother of a child. But real parenting has altogether different dynamics which even some of the biological parents are unable to understand.
Negotiating the roughs and tumbles of the highly fast- paced modern day life, most of the parents often unwittingly commit the crime of paying the cold shoulder to their children. Many of the parents absorbed in reading this piece may choose to lull their guilty conscience by creating a delusion that they have been catering to the various material needs of their children, therefore they can not be questioned and called under cloud.
Emotional care, close bonding
Though the haunting question arises that mere fulfillment of the material needs of a child and giving him/ her a comfortable and luxurious life is what they are supposed to be responsible for. This is just a lopsided approach. On the other hand the prerequisite component of emotional care and close bonding looks conspicuously missing in many cases.
Grappling with the issue at hand, “Alphabetical Parenting” is really an excellent book by an acclaimed author Karen Claire in which the writer skilfully and deftly throws a flood of light on the art of right kind of parenting which is the chief bedrock for providing your child a holistic wellbeing .
It is chiefly important to learn the alphabet of a language, in order to enjoy that language to the fullest. Similarly for enjoying your parenting journey, there are a few stepping stones which the author spells out for the young parents to grasp and absorb .
To expatiate on her perspective about the much needed skill of parenting, the author resorts to the sequence of the English alphabet.
Every alphabet is a chapter
Much to the elation of the literary critics , In her book, Alphabetical Parenting, the author Karen Claire quite devoutly strives to present simple but fully efficacious tools to empower all parents across the globe to be the parents their children really look for . Every alphabet is a chapter in itself. Every alphabet offers deep insight into an element of parenting that could serve as a gentle reminder or a wonderful moment of discovery.
The sole purpose of every book is to establish a deep connect with its readers. The stronger the connect, the better the authors succeeds in driving home the message. Any message couched in complexity ridden jargon terribly fails to resonate with the readers of which the author of this book is fully aware. Therefore, she has quite succinctly and artistically chosen an easy to comprehend syntax, perplexity free morphological items and smooth phraseology to forge a deep connect with parents and readers.
The examples and situations which the book comprises have been culled from a page of her own life which sublimely augment the genuineness of the content.
Developing the feeling of gratitude
There are some very simple chapters that cover things which impact our relationship with our children but we, as parents, take them for granted – how to greet your child or the need to express gratitude to your child and there are also some chapters that dwell on profound underlying issues such as learning the art of asking your child questions or upholding a family value system make the warp and woof of this book.
At the end of each chapter, the reader finds several thought-provoking questions that lead to the parents re-directing the trajectory of their intent and thus, their interaction with their child becomes healthy. In addition, the chapter titled – ‘If the hat fits’ is full of personal notes to those parents who have very unique journeys – single parents, step parents, parents struggling with children who have special needs or have been abused, parents struggling with addiction, etc. Therefore this is indeed a book that inculcates a value system in every family and provides a perfect, practical tool-kit with the chief objective of cementing the parent-child bond.
