Most parents will vouch that unsolicited advice on ways and means to transform into perfect parents starts pouring in right from announcement of pregnancy. From tips on maintaining good health during pregnancy to infant care and nurturing children through middle and turbulent adolescence years, parents are bombarded with a plethora of parenting information and advice. In the good old days, this advice emanated from family elders, relatives and friends. In the 1980s-1990s, pop parenting guides and books became the flavour of that era. In the new millennium, following the mind-boggling Internet revolution, advice is flooding data storage capacity. In particular in the decade past with the smartphone becoming ubiquitous — India hosts 624 million mobile phone Internet users, the second largest number worldwide — unsurprisingly, parennials are spoilt for choice. But they are experiencing stress about choosing the best from among the good. In our cover story this month, we present the pick of unprecedented new-genre parenting apps that offer professional advice starting from coping with pregnancy to expert guidance on child development, learning resources and tracking children’s in-school progress. Within India’s post-liberalisation newly affluent nuclear households where only the best is good enough for the children, anxious parents are constantly searching for easily accessible apps powered by the world’s best child psychologists and early childhood educators. And to cater to this global demand, a new tribe of entrepreneurs has stepped up to promote start-ups offering a plethora of information on parenting and childcare. In our cover story written by Bengaluru-based content creator and tech evangelist Zahid H. Javali, we present a curated list of the best parenting apps of 2021. There’s a lot else in this issue of ParentsWorld. Check out the guide to bathing infants and Middle Years feature offering parents advice to ensure fuss-free mealtimes. And our regular Ask the Doctor and Your Counselor Replies columns. Wishing all readers a Happy Independence Day.
