Sibling support for our kids in the future….
In the past generation, there were several children in a family. The number of children in a family was close to 10 about 70 years ago. Slowly it reduced to 4 or 5 children 40 years ago. Today we normally see couple have one or two per family and rarely three children. It may be due to several good reasons. But think of the sibling support that we get. Our brothers and sisters do not think twice to come to our rescue in case we need them. The coming generation may not have that kind of support from siblings.
What do we do?
One easy and good way to overcome this is to have our children considering the cousins as close family members. To make it happen
o We should take every opportunity to meet and spend time together
o We can have parties with our cousins as we do with out friends/colleagues that will bring the next generation closure
o Let them mix well and get comfortable with each other
o We should also instill the bonding in their mind
o We can also make the older kids realize that they consider themselves responsible for their younger cousins.
It is not difficult to do so. We require little more communication and get-together with our cousins. More importantly, we should remove the notion of “relatives means problems….”. As you all agree, days are gone where we keep complaining about our relatives with ego. We already have very friendly relationship with each other why not we give the same feelings to our kids about their cousins.
Ok, where is the party tonight :-) ?
If you agree, disagree or have comments please feel free to post your comments in this blog that would help bring a healthy discussion.
3 comments:
Sibling support is a excellent concept no doubt. It is mutually beneficial, no doubt! Only problem I see now a days is that, Children are demanding, Parents are too greedy that no amount of money is sufficient. Eagerness to money sends both the parents to work resulting in no time to take care of the children. Children are demanding which drives parents to bring more money. End of the day Chicken and Egg story.
Jaganath,
Well said. Your point helps reinforce the point further. This is not money matter. No amount wealth can compensate the brotherly/ sisterly support. Keeping lots of wealth is not going to ensure that your children will get everything they want. So it is sibling support that we care about… not chicken or egg.
I strongly agree with your points.
However, life is not black and white, and we live in a mean world. And the hypocrasy in us denies that fact - just on a completely negative side of it.
If we have to take away your quoted notion, then it has to be initiated by one generation and achieved by the following generation. Thenceforth, it becomes a habbit for the descendants.
Communication over mail, phone, chat with our dear ones has brought down in-person meets. What to do !!! We are just scattered across places. Most of the times, as we stay apart, we start to feel more close with our neighbours rather than those whom we know right from our birth...
... and we can keep this unfolding beyond siblings, cousins to community, caste, state, country, religion, race. I suppose, we will be there in that position, someday.
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