“Jeevan ka gyaan” through a toddler’s life😅😅- As children grow they learn, they observe and evolve and all this happens at a much faster pace than what one actually thinks at!

My three year old toddler Soham sleeps with us and so he had also been a co-companion to us in our TV binge watching spree that was suddenly the most essential mode of time-pass and entertainment of our lockdown days routine. Ever since then there has been a huge spike in the usage of the OTT platforms which have now become an integral part of most of the households.

Now all of you who are familiar with these web series would know that there are a lot of “ahem-ahem” (you-know-what-i-mean) scenes in almost all of them where we had to ensure that the remote was always handy and a quick fast forward was mandatory for viewing our shows safely with Soham! 😅😅

However as smart as we thought we were as grown ups, what recently happened while watching a movie on TV with Soham sitting next to me opened my eyes and made me realize that underestimating a young one’s observation and analyzing capability is actually a mistake that we as elders did !

On the TV screen, as the lead actor held the lead actress in his arms, Soham quickly said, “Mumma Yeh toh uske mu pe kissi karne wala hai, yeh toh galat baat hota hai!” ( Mummy he is going to kiss her on the lips, that is a bad touch) We burst into laughter on his reaction (mostly for the way he said it) and even though this particular movie wasn’t having intimate scenes of that sort, yet what took me by surprise was that a 3 year old had learnt to judge the body language and the behavior to predict that the next step was something that wasn’t approved of as a good thing. Even though this wasn’t taught to him yet in words by us, what we as adults had failed to notice was that when we thought that we were smart enough to fast forward scenes which would lead to excessive intimate actions thereby protecting him from seeing and learning things which were not appropriate for his age, the young one by our side was probably observing our reactions more closely than what we thought and had derived a few conclusions of his own!

To reason with, to observe, to grasp and to imbibe is a basic part of how the brain functions and in the raw form i.e. in one’s childhood/growing up phase it works at a faster pace. With that fact in mind I actually thought that the unlimited access and easy approach and exposure that the present generation has to a lot of violence, sex, relationships and it’s darker side etc etc etc how healthy is all this in terms of the psychological well being of our kids?? And even though this is not yet applicable to be said for a three year old but definitely the TV serials, the web series, the excessive knowledge and easy access to it on social media, all of these is taking away a very important ingredient from our children’s lives, the ingredient which makes them special as a child, their ‘innocence’

Not that I am running an anti-promotion campaign against the OTT platforms nor am I promoting to take away technology from the lives of our children, that’s an impossible thing to do, but I wish we could work out a balance for the right use of technology limited only to their betterment and let life unfold and evolve at its natural pace for them instead of stealing away their innocence.

After all, “Bade hokar toh bada banna hi hai ek din, yeh toh Bachpan hai jo kuch khaas hai, ek bar jo chala gaya fir bus yaadein iski reh jaati hai par yehi yaadein hai jin mein jeevan ki anmol mithaas hai.!” 😊