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Challenges of NRI Parents

Challenges of NRI Parents

Admin August 13, 2021

Parenting is one of the toughest projects you can have in your life. A small act of carelessness or ignorance can ruin your child’s life forever. As parents you have to walk a tightrope between discipline and affection and while getting your child ready to face the tough world outside. The challenge gets just bigger for parents who are settled overseas, outside their home country. What are the most common problems encountered and how as a parent you can try to address them – are very crucial.

Let’s see some of the most often encountered problems and maybe some suggestions to counter them.

Disconnect with mother tongue

Children in a foreign land are sent to schools that have kids from different nationalities. So quite obviously they pick up foreign languages quicker, as they spend more time playing with their friends or interacting with teachers. Mother tongue in most cases is only spoken by parents at home and the kid finds it difficult to become equally proficient in it, as he is used to the language used for communication in school. So, in most cases, the child may be able to understand the mother tongue a bit as it is used at home, but can hardly read or write in the same way. In fact many even have problem speaking the language though they may understand it.

So as NRI parents, it will be an added responsibility to ensure that the child is given special care to understand their mother tongue. At least the basics of reading and writing need to be taught at home. Otherwise, it will be difficult later for the child to communicate with other relatives back home and most importantly older generation people find it difficult communicating with the child.

Adapting to cultural differences

Every culture has its own way with things. While there is no absolute good or bad in a culture, adapting to different ones becomes quite a challenging lesson. Say, in India it is quite common to appreciate someone’s good piece of work or even convey blessings by touching or patting on the head. But in some South East Asian cultures, touching the head is offensive, given some religious beliefs they adhere to. In many western cultures, entering someone’s home with shoes on is quite normal. But as a child in India, we are taught that shoes need to be taken off before you enter someone’s home. There are so many such cultural issues which a child must be taught by the parents as they grow up in a foreign land. The challenge is not only about teaching things related to the local culture where the child grows in, it is about the child getting basic lessons of Indian way of things too.

Calling by name or addressing by the nature of relations?

Though many Indians are adapting to calling their own relations by their first names, it is still not a very common practice. Indian culture still loves names being taken based on relations and also addressed based on the seniority levels. This is quite in contrast to most foreign countries, where people are called by names only. So, teaching a child how to behave in a foreign land and also back home in India, is something that most parents often struggle with. While using the name of relation has its own sweetness and personal touch, it becomes easier for the child to follow a uniform way of addressing others rather than having different standards.

Lifestyle differences and adaptation – conclusion

There are a host of other day-to-day issues that as a NRI parent faces when away from home. Starting from the glaring sound of horns, using local currency units in discussions rather than referring to them as rupees, toilet etiquettes are just to mention a few of them. Your child in a foreign land may have never seen a cow or a buffalo on the streets, or felt the comfort of a huddle next to grandparents listening to bedtime stories.

Life is very different for the child and as a NRI parent, you always remain torn between making choices between what suits your child in the current environment to what you have been brought up with since childhood at home.

The pre-schooling curriculum in Indian schools on the other hand is balanced and the best option your  child can avail. The parents can be sure of the fact that the academic schedule is very Indian but at the same time incorporates the best of modern day international teaching practices. Additionally the environment is so designed that the child learns modern ways of the world but without forgetting Indian tradition, culture and values. It will really be a pity, if your child does not know the excitement of a Diwali or Dusshera or the warmth of Holi and Rakhi in addition to learning Christmas carols. Little Laureates, a chain  of eminent preschools in India is now  open to admissions for children living abroad.  Parents on the lookout for a curriculum that helps in the holistic development of their child during their formative years can enroll their toddlers for virtual classes so that their children receive a well rounded education and develop skills at an early age while learning about their roots and culture.

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