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While all parents wish their children well, somewhere down the line, we become less of parents and more of "arrangers" of their lives.
I seem to be getting into the habit of picking up from where I left in my previous posts, and I just hope that my posts do not sound like a litany of I, me, myself!
To respond to Sunil Deepak’s comment on my post ‘She Must Be Black, No?’ where in part he asks the question, “Or do we need to say that every one should have only love marriage…do we need to say no more arranged marriages?” I can only say that where I am concerned it is so pointless to debate the merits and demerits of arranged versus love marriages. To me it is not a question of which is better or worse; to me it is far more important than that. It is a matter of what choices our children make when they step into adulthood, or what choices we allow them to make. And I will only speak for myself.
I personally can never be an arranger of marriages. Marriage, to me should strictly be a matter of personal choice. Many parents, sadly, seem to think that all of life’s choices regarding their children should be for the parents to decide. After all, it is us parents who gave birth to our children. Didn’t we arrange their education; didn’t we try to impose career choices on them? Didn’t we decide what movies they should watch, whether they should have late nights, whether they should be on the Internet for so many hours in a day, or whether they should mix with the opposite sex…it’s a long never ending list, and we parents don’t even realize that all we are doing, at least most of the time, is to arrange our children’s lives as we think we should.
We all wish our children well, we do want to offer them all the best that life can offer, but somewhere down the line, perhaps unknowingly, we become less of parents and more of arrangers. And we let this role of arrangers spill into our children’s lives even when they enter adulthood. Let me speak from my own example. Every minute of my life was arranged. At home by my father, and in boarding school by the discipline that was part of life in school. I loved to read, and my dad would actually want to look at, and approve of every book that I read. He would tell me what was good for me, and a time came when I began to feel whatever I decided for myself must be bad, for my dad hadn’t put his seal of approval on it. I was low on self esteem, and from a thinking individual I was turning into an automation, and I yearned to break free. This censoring of my reading by my dad is only a small example of how my life was arranged, controlled and regulated. It was, in reality, much much worse.
I was a teenager, and the only way I figured out to break free was to rebel, and I rebelled with a vengeance. Now, so many years down the line, I do realize that maybe I could have handled things differently, but how could I? I was never taught to think for myself. My wife tells me that because I had led such a regimented life as a child and as a teenager, maybe that’s why I am so ‘liberal’ with my daughters. Perhaps I am, but then my daughters are individuals in their own right, and I am happy being a father, a mentor, a guide and not an arranger. And yes, now I am 50, and I often dream that my dad was a little different, that he was just a dad, and not The Arranger of my life.
Coming back to arranging marriages for my daughters, I have said in an earlier post that I will not do it. Not only will I not, but I can’t, I won’t even know how to. I have been there with my elder daughter, ensuring that her transition into adulthood was smooth and that she is capable of deciding for herself what is right and what is wrong, including marriage. Now I am doing the same for my younger one, and soon she will also be stepping into responsible adulthood.
“Self-esteem is the real magic wand that can form a child’s future. A child’s self-esteem affects every area of her existence, from friends she chooses, to how well she does academically in school, to what kind of job she gets, to even the person she chooses to marry.”- STEPHANIE MARTSON, The Magic of Encouragement
I am a former bureaucrat, and have worked a lot on gender issues, disaster management and good governance. I am also the proud father of two lovely daughters. read more...
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If her home and family seem to be impacted by her career then we expect her to prioritize her ‘responsibilities at home as a woman’ and leave her job.
The entrenched patriarchal norms have always perpetuated certain roles and responsibilities as falling specifically in the domain of either men or women. Traditionally, women have been associated with the domestic sphere while men have been considered the bread winner of the household. This division of roles has become so ingrained in our lives that we seldom come to question it. However, while not being questioned does give the system a certain level of legitimacy, it in no way proves its veracity.
This systematic division has resulted in a widely accepted notion whereby the public sphere is demarcated as a men’s zone and the private sphere as belonging to women. Consequently, women are expected to stay at home and manage the household chores while men are supposed to go out and make a living with no interest whatsoever in the running of the household.
This divide is said to be grounded in the intrinsic nature of men and women. Women are believed to be compassionate, affectionate and loving and these supposedly ‘feminine’ qualities make them the right fit for caring roles. Men, on the other hand are allegedly more sturdy, strong and bold and hence, the ones to deal with the ordeals of the outside world.
Investing in women means many things beyond the obvious meaning of this IWD2024 theme, as the many orgs doing stellar work can show us.
What does it mean to invest in women?
Telling the women in our lives how great we think they are? That we value the sacrifices they have made? (Usually though not necessarily only – a sacrifice of their aspirations, careers and earning potential in order to focus on family).
No, thank you. Just talk is no longer going to cut it. Roses and compliments are great, but it’s time people, leaders, organizations put their money, capital, resources on track instead.
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