Engineering from an IIT, MBA from an IIM, cracking UPSC and becoming an IAS office, getting a high positioned job at an MNC with a six-figure salary – these are the quintessential Indian benchmarks to be tagged as “successful”. Anything less than this, an individual is branded as an “average”.
So, to make one’s kid “successful”, there are lots of parenting tips floating around on the internet. A thread of such parenting advice was shared on Twitter by IAS officer Divya Mittal. Her pointers include letting kids fail, letting them take risks, trusting them, shunning bad behaviour, etc. which is pretty decent advice.
But the problem lies with her first tweet, where she mentioned that her mother raised 3 kids who went into IITs and IIMs. I don’t know why that was necessary.
She went on to reveal that she is currently raising two daughters and then listed the many pieces of advice regarding parenting.
Have a look:
She had over ten points in the entire thread, some of them are mentioned below. If you want to read the full thread, click here.
And several people were quick to call her out on the IIT and IIM bit. Many expressed how kids getting into such prestigious institutes is not necessarily a sign of good parenting. Have a look:
raising child successfully is synonymous to IIT & IIM ? The degree is the Diamond stone , the sparks from it is the culture.The stone has the weight,the spark/the light has radiance.Know too many IITians,bragging/boasting/undermining others is most in them.EQ is as important.
— Chaitali Bhattacharya 🇮🇳 (@chaitali253) August 23, 2022
Making kids get into IIT is certainly not a certificate of good parenting.
If kids become good human beings and do what they truly want to do, it will be called real success.— Sunita Mahanta (@sunita_mahanta) August 23, 2022
My simple question. Going to IIT/IIM is only parameter of measuring success for children?
— RAHUL SODHI (@imerahul) August 24, 2022
I don’t understand why people go for IIM after IIT, we need more people from technical backgrounds…Is it some kind of bhedchaal or in india there is no value of technical education or is it the money behond it in the corporates
Hard to understand— prashant singh (@singhsaaab) August 23, 2022
People feel so much proud as if only gng to IIT & IIM are winners rest ofthe crowd does nothing all
— SOMU (@somu_009) August 23, 2022
Am sorry to tell you that you have distorted views about good parenting. IIT, IIM, IAS are desirable but definitely not the benchmark to judge parenting skills.
I find your opening tweet repulsive and will suggest you do deep introspection of yourself.— Vibration (@Grosssubtle) August 23, 2022
I appreciate the academic rigour that you describe (IIT, IIM, IAS). But I am failing to join the dots that doing academically well equals true inner happiness or becoming a good citizen or a good human being. There doesn’t seem to be much of a correlation between the two sides.
— Brendan (@Brendan41480114) August 24, 2022
All parents do that , given their circumstance , get off your high horse , credential based value judgement , just shows how shallow your “exposure to doing well” has been . Maybe spend more time in office doing work , and not writing cringe Linkedin posts .
— Fermat Mishra (@Fermat36564463) August 24, 2022
I don’t think academic success of children is only factor to associate good parenting with.
Sometimes children don’t want to pursue academic field (maybe they want to pursue music or sports) or they have some learning disabilities, I think even their parents are great.
— Richa Shankar (@believer_richa) August 23, 2022
I certainly don’t agree that excelling in studies is the only parameter for success .. before anyone judges me, just want to tell that I am also an IIT alumni … A successful parenting should facilitate the child to achieve success in his/her field of interest
— Crypto_L@nister (@KumarHavinder) August 23, 2022
What are your views on this?