DON’T GO TO ‘EXTREMES’ WHILE DEALING WITH KIDS

“Extremes of control or extremes of lenience, both are not advisable when dealing with children,” advised experts at a public forum conducted by the Obstetrics and Gynaecological Society of Hyderabad (OGSH) in the city on Sunday.

There were several questions on how to deal with mobile phones and whether to give children pocket money or not and how to deal with them while imparting ‘sex education’ which is called ‘Adolescent health education’ to de-stigmatise the term. “Give skills to children instead of things, and also do not force your childhood interests or your dreams on them. Engage with them and let them get acquainted with all the skills necessary and allow them to choose. Just giving them mobiles for hours to engage them only affects their growth in a negative way, there are several studies proving the ill-effects of excessive use of mobile phones on children,” said Dr Namita Singh, consultant Neuropsychologist speaking to the Deccan Chronicle.

She added that communication with children is the key to several issues and extremes of control or lenience is equally dangerous.

There were mixed opinions on pocket money, as many said that there is no need of pocket money, while others said it is necessary to give pocket money to let the children know about the value of money and to have a little financial freedom. One of the students, E Gagana, a fashion technology student, said that parents should teach kids how to have self control with the mobile instead of banning mobile phones or any other thing.