Celebrity Parenting Tips

Parenting children these days is as problematic and challenging to every parent as adulting is to an adult. Though all parents face problems in bringing their children up, each parent has to find ways and means of handling them in his/her own way. It is too obvious to say that parenthood is a crucial stage in our lives, and so problems in raising children come with the turf. In English Literature, novels like ‘Sons and Lovers’, ‘Swamy and Friends’, ‘The Financial Expert’, and plays like ‘Death of a Salesman’ have viewed and presented these problems from different angles. Now film Journalist Rashmi Uchil allows us to have a peek into the lives of some Bollywood celebrities who have grappled with the problems of raising their children. Hence, she gives her interesting book the title, “Raising Stars”.

In all, Rashmi talks to 26 celebrity Bollywood parents who make no bones about telling us their struggle in dealing with their growing up wards. Some parents use their life lessons and past experience in shepherding their children in life. Actor Mahima Chowdhary treats her only daughter Aryana as a friend. She guides Aryana with lessons from her own life that help her boost self-confidence and ability to handle any situation. At the same time Mahima doesn’t spare Aryana when she throws tantrums.

Nandita Das, writer and actor, perhaps has some clear idea about what right parenting is all about. She feels that raising a boy as a sensitive person is as challenging as raising a daughter to be confident and free. Das thinks that since children emulate their parents, parents should discuss with children things like their education, habits, personality building, and life in general. But to be role models, they must walk the talk. And Das practices all these things with her lone 8-year-old son.

Archana Puran Singh of “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai” movie fame thinks that every child is different and so needs to be treated differently. She adopts two different ways in handling her two sons. One day when she saw her elder son Aryamann abusing a servant in the house, Archana became so furious that she made her son touch the feet of the Servant, begging for his forgiveness! She believed in traditional parenting and used often the rod to punish them.

The Miss World 1997 title holder and actor, Diana Hayden as a child grew up in a house in Hyderabad where there were 8 adults, 5 children, and one toilet. All that taught her how to live, share, fight, and make up in life. Later as a mother of three children, Hayden taught her children these life lessons of living together and sharing everything.

Jackie Shroff is one of the few parents who believe that children must have the freedom to commit mistakes and experience setbacks firsthand. Such freedom teaches them life lessons and builds self-reliance. Jackie believes in two things, one that parents should allow children to know how their parents sweat it out in life and second, parents should never talk about their achievements boastfully and impose those goals on children.

Installing the virtues of kindness, empathy, and generosity in our children is the first and foremost duty of all parents, feels actor Zarine Sanjay Khan. Both of them faced lots of hardships and poverty in the initial days of their acting career. As a mother of four children, Zarine has taken care of ensuring these virtues in her children. The office staff members and servants in her house are always treated with dignity and empathy. All of them are given food in her house every day throughout their service. And all of her grown-up and successful children have been continuing this tradition in their houses as well.

One trait all parents must ensure to find in children is their love for the values of secularism and plurality in a country like ours. Lyricist and poet Javed Akhtar says that he has raised his two sons in such a way that they know a lot about our cultural heritage and they love to enjoy our composite cultural nuances.

Most parents like to raise their children to be honest and hardworking. Lost his father when he was in his mother’s womb, faced many setbacks and difficulties, and did many odd jobs to make out a living, Boman Irani, actor, photographer, and voice artist, has guided his two children to depend on their hard work and probity.

Life for a single parent is always a tightrope walk. One advantage for the children of a single parent is that they quickly become self-reliant because they start tackling every situation very early in life. It is a pity that most single parents face lots of problems and in many cases social stigma and they are lucky if they find the unconditional support and help from parents, siblings, understanding friends, and loyal maids. Actor and singer Suchitra Krishnamoorthy is one such lucky single parent. After her separation from actor Sekhar Kapur, Suchitra took up her father’s name and became Suchitra Krishnamoorthy. Reading about her challenges and joy in raising her only daughter, Kaveri, a talented singer, songwriter, composer, and actor, inspires all single parents.

Pooja Bedi, Madhu Chopra, Sunil Shetty, Neelima Azeem, Amrita Raichand are some of the other star parents featured in this book and who have successfully weathered parenting blues and have some very useful tips to offer for us on parenting. Rare family pictures of Bollywood actors, the short and introductory write-ups about every chapter are add-on features of this motivational book published in December 2023 by Rashmi. And it makes an interesting read and is a must for every parent.