A new decade brings new hopes and ambitions. Along with that, it requires different, rather contemporary ways of parenting for us. Now you may ask what this would imply. Recent studies have shown that Indian children spend a lot of ‘alone-together’ time with their parents, i.e. they spend time with parents who are busy using phones and other gadgets.

This naturally alarms how important it is to adapt life-skills way of parenting for the new decade. So for you, here’s a list of some important life-skill ways of parenting tips that will help in creating a better bond between you and your children.

Inculcate responsible eating: Nutritious food helps in overall growth of your champs. Needless to say, our quick snack packs aren’t enough to keep the children’s nutritional levels optimum. While we agree that one can’t devoid children of these, we can always add salads, fruit-dishes and soups as mid-meals in the day. Finding it challenging to inculcate this habit? Try some reward system that will entice them into helping you.

We as parents are our children's first and best role models, and this is particularly true when it comes to their health. – Michelle Obama

Interact: There’s no better way to teach and learn with children than interaction. When we exchange ideas and thoughts with our children, they learn to share it. Choose topics of their interest and know them better through their thoughts. This habit also builds their cognitive and emotional skills while being responsible thinkers.

Play games at home: Time spent with children is and will always be the most special phase of our life. Now, how do we make it entertaining for both them and you? We’ve got your back here. There are ample indoor games that help children experiment, calculate or solve mysteries.
A tip: while these games tease their skills, you could act and dramatise plots to keep the learning fascinating.

Create a mini garden at home: Being responsible towards environment is important more than ever. It’s a value your children need to learn at an early age. The simplest way is by bringing some plants at home and creating a garden. Try to add watering plants as a part of the routine for them. You could also inspire children by participating in tree plantations around.

Have a no-gadget time: Yes, we are headed towards digital age. However, it is also important to be aware of optimising the use of gadgets at home. Set a time as no-gadget hour (including your gadgets). This will give you absolutely focused time to interact with your children and bond with them better. So parents, are we set for the new-decade parenting?