Oh mothers - Give your sons the ground to land on...

The world is changing probably more rapidly than we can imagine or are ready to accept. Our parents’ generation were the starters of a revolution in the country, a revolution that saw girls coming out, pursuing their dreams, making a career , learning the skills earlier deemed to be a male’s domain. And boy, they succeeded and passed on the baton to us. 

We began with notions of gender equality or maybe the word is female appeasement, now this may get a little serious ( will take it up in later blogs) - we learnt it all, broke the glass ceiling, became super woman.. a package that dealt with career, home, kids and everything. Our parents did their duty beautifully, they gave us wings to fly, the strength to dream and courage to realise those dreams. 

So what next - is the task over? No,  If you look around you would realise that the task actually given to our generation is much tougher. While our parents took care of girls, it’s upon us to give ground to our boys. We needed the sky, we got it...they need ground - let’s  give it to them.

Now, what exactly am I saying? Well, of late there has been an advertisement going on # sharetheload by a popular washing powder brand. It deals with a sensitive issue - we gave wings to our daughters to dream, but did we teach our sons to adjust to this new female? Ask yourself.... a married working woman can not expect help from her husband because apart from social norms , the poor guy is unequipped to handle any task- be it as small as folding clothes and putting them in almirah. We have made men so dependent on us that it’s actually more detrimental to their growth than our well being. 

We taught daughters to be financially independent, take care of tasks like banking , finance, shopping alone but the sons remain clueless at home( mostly - though I hear some changes are happening).

As a mother of two sons, I urge the mothers of sons ,to ensure you bring up your sons as independent human beings, someone who can cook, clean and wash and be an equal contributor at home rather than sitting and thinking “I don’t know how?” The task is crucial and difficult, full of hurdles by society and it’s norms as it shakes the foundation of our patriarchal world but then learn from your parents . They fought norms for us girls to be independent.... let’s make them proud by making our sons independent. It’s time to complete the circle.

It’s time we give our sons - the ground to land on, the skills to manage house, the temperament of acknowledging the contribution of household work and ensure that mother of the girl your son marries says with a smile - “ wow”.

That’s when our task will be successful, it isn’t easy bringing up sons in today’s world, to make them ready for a future that will be vastly different from the present. We have done enough for the girls they are on the right track. Let’s start with our sons , coz only than would we have really repaid the faith our parents showed on us -

Educate a woman and you educate a generation.

Let’s do it, together.