Making weekends meaningful for children

PW invited parents of Navrachana Higher Secondary School, Vadodara to share their insights on how they help make weekends meaningful for their children

“It’s a given for my children – Yushika (class X) and Adit (class V) – to spend maximum time with us every weekend. Therefore, we carefully plan small trips close to nature. On home weekends, we encourage our children to help in household chores like cooking, baking, gardening or even decluttering. Inviting our children’s friends over or sending our children to their friends’ places is a routine practice. Children also need to learn to share and develop emotional bonds with individuals outside the family.” — Tejaswini Anurag Gupta, CSR Head, Arkel Electronic India Pvt Ltd

“Weekends have always held great value for us as family. Our weekend activities with our daughter Hivah (class XII) have transformed through the years from queuing up for entry into parks and zoos, to cheering for her at football games and athletic tracks to calm walks in the neighbourhood and discussing the hits and misses of the previous week. We also like listening to podcasts of people from diverse professions and their success stories. Moreover we ensure adding a touch of humour in all that we do and set the tone for the following week.” — Dr. Chinar Nitin Patel, Professor, Dept of Anaesthesiology, Parul institute of Medical Sciences, Vadodara

“Throughout the week, we are so immersed in our respective work schedules that we are unable to interact with our son Advik (class I) till late evenings. Hence, weekends are the best time to bond and regain energy for the upcoming week. We take long refreshing walks around the neighbourhood. Some weekends, we make dining out plans at fancy restaurants. The idea is to spend quality time with the family. We also ensure our son interacts with other children” — Prof. (Dr.) Vijaykumar Srivastava, Vice Chancellor, MS University of Baroda

“Weekends in our second generation fauji family are far from laid back. Our children — Raghav (class VII) and college going daughter Jahnavi — get woken up early by our golden retriever Casper who won’t rest till he is taken for a brisk early morning walk and run in the neighbourhood. The children are then made to either clean their rooms or finish their homework. Dinner at home means cooking lessons for the children who act as assistants to their father/chef. On some weekends we make trips outside the city for the children to cycle, trek, visit historical places, or engage in adventure sports like rock wall climbing which promote love for fitness.” — Wg Cdr Amrita Basudev (Retd).