Where has all the fun gone?
By Deepti Gupta

THE first day of summer holidays. Waking up my child at 5.30 in the morning for football camp. Return home at 9.30. Quick bath, breakfast, and off to summer school at 11.Back at 2. Lunch in a hurry. Holiday homework awaits. Five in the evening — time for tennis. Back at 7. Too tired, gulp down dinner, nod off in front of the television. Summer fun is dead! Long live summer holidays.
This is a day in the summer vacation of a child who happens to have parents with low-grade ambitions. Parents with high-grade ambitions keep the child out of the house from 6 to 6. All in the interest of a well-rounded personality. After all, it is the age of competition. By eight years of age, every child must be a champion athlete, a genius in class, a top class computer whiz and expert at dancing, singing or fine art. Every split second matters and has to be accounted for come what may. And in the bargain, the child stays out of the parents’ hair.
Remember the days of yore, when you and me went to our granny’s in the summer vacation? Lazy days of paddling in the pond, delicious days of huge holiday meals, interesting hours of folklore and tales, fun-filled times of kite-flying and carrom-board with cousins. Our parents were, oh, so naive to allow us to waste all that time in such a worthless manner! But, alas! There were no summer schools in our deprived childhoods. Can one learn anything without summer school. Why not ? All learning is not overt. Today’s child goes to craft classes, workshops to learn muscular and mental co-ordination. The same precision and co-ordination can come from laying the table every evening, watering the plants or spring-cleaning the room. And a sense of responsibility also creeps in, by and by.
Young adults in high-profile jobs run to the psychiatrists couch at every small provocation. Reiki, Tai-Chi and art of living courses are just a few of the necessities needed by the coming generation in order to simply live on. Tranquillity and peace have become holy grails to be sought, sadly. Why? This is because right from childhood, today’s young person gets not a single moment to introspect in. Every minute becomes a mad race. That is not to say that life earlier lacked competition. There was enough competition but there were patches of peace, quiet and introspection in the shape of the summer holiday oasis.
When the young adults leave home for greener pastures, every mother feels deeply the empty nest grief. Jobs have always beckoned young people but a parent who has spent long hours and days with the children will not feel the empty nest bereavement as deeply. The huge package of memories and good times spent together sustain the whole family and keep it together as one unit.
In a world of commercials, temptations do beckon when the all-round development of your child is offered on a platter. But, do remember that parental duty and care do not end with the payment of the summer school fee, however, astronomical it might be. All the experts in the world cannot give a child what a parent can in terms of honest caring and commitment. No expert, however, famous can have a child’s welfare as close to the heart as a parent can. With a parent, a simple walk in the rain brings more joy and knowledge than a four week adventure camp can bring. Watching television together is a good opportunity to impart the values of life. Handling household chores brings more maturity and a sense of responsibility than all the lectures in the world can bring. Reading a good book together can teach the basics of public speaking while enhancing the vocabulary. Of course, this in no way means that summer schools are useless or valueless. But temperance is a virtue here like in all other things of life. Let your child enjoy the vacation while learning as well. Become partners with the summer school, don’t hand over your child in toto to the summer school culture. For, you are a child but once and parenthood, too, is not a privilege to be wasted. Enjoy your child’s years with you before the bird flies from the nest.