Cosseting.

When I see toddlers of labourers sitting quietly before a plate of rice and polishing it of to the last particle I can't but hark back to my past.

I had to chase my toddlers , spin several stories and divert their attention by showing them crows and squirrels in the morning and the setting sun and the moon at night and slip in a morsel of food in mouths open in surprise and never in hunger.Each day was a tussle [ an enjoyable one though]between me and my kids as to who would outsmart the other !Weren't they hungry or was it that they couldn't stomach unfamiliar foods to our palate like 'cerelac and farex' the baby foods prescribed by doctors ?
To several of my peers feeding time was literally an exhausting battle of wills . Feeding the child forcibly was the general rule . Mothers would pin down their kicking and wailing child and were satisfied only when they successfully managed to push down nutrients into tiny gullets.This foolishness hasn't ended . I still see mothers of current generation of toddlers continuing this abhorrent feeding practises.

Our ancient stories and poems are also replete with mothers cajoling and tricking their children to eat by showing the moon.This seems to be the pattern of rearing children in well off house holds from time immemorial !

I stop in surprise and pause in amazement every time I come across a child eating quietly and dutifully with no fawning or cajoling parents hovering by , all by itself out side a hut or on pebbles ,mud or on rocks in the open where the child's parents are toiling ,breaking the ground and erecting buildings or under the shade of the mobile iron carts!

I have spent hours boiling water and then cooling them before allowing my children to drink it.I have also spent several gruelling hours vacuum cleaning the entire house so that a not a speck of dust be around, to trigger allergic sneezing fits..Yet they were often down with fever ,catching some infection or the other from unavoidable contact with the outside.

I can't but marvel at the sturdiness [ or immunity] of the children of the poor .They drink any water, roll on mud and dust,get soaked to the skin in rains, sweat it out in the sun and barring some skin infections are seldom down with fever !

Of what use is this cosseting and excessive attention showered on kids in middle class societies that results only in obesity, lack of self esteem , delicate sensibilities , allergies and asthma? All that is required is teaching a few basic survival skills [parental love and affection being presumed]and allow nature to do the rest!