Saturday, May 16, 2009

Follow up ...

Hey everybody, this one is for all those of you who were interested to know how the talk went the other day..

The Doctor was a Gynaec-Obstetrician and also a professor at the medical college here. Being a teacher made her an extremely good communicator and she just went with the pulse of the kids. There were a total of twenty kids, all girls, their ages ranging from 9 to 14 years. The elder ones were extremely shy and conscious to begin with and more so as their mothers were sitting right next to them. This made me realise that I had done right in taking my daughter at a younger age for this talk, before she gathered information from peers that cluttered her mind and made her shy. The younger ones were soaking it all up. The questions were slow to begin with but then the kids opened up and how!!

She had made a very good and informative power point presentation which was projected on an empty wall. The facts were all there, very simply stated. She encouraged the mothers to talk about their experiences and taught the kids how to tackle inconveniences. The topic of harassment and eve teasing were discussed at length and the kids were made to realise that its perfectly ok to say NO to anybody or anything that didn't make them feel comfortable. common examples were taken up and each child was asked how she would handle it. I was happy to see that kids today are a secure lot, they are no longer shy of elders and neither hesitant to be firm with them. This part of the program was interactive and an eye opener for the moms. Many of us for the first time realised that most of our kids have already encountered some form of harassment.

At the end of the 1 and 1/2 hour talk the kids and the moms were given pamphlets and handouts and also her contact numbers.

It was an extremely healthy and positive session and on the walk back home from this lecture, my daughter really opened up to me.

For all the parents who have gone through and responded to my previous post, I hope this post shows the route that you and your child can take together.

Cheers and Happy parenting!!

5 comments:

अलीम आज़मी said...

fantastic ...articles...its very nice to read...this...keep it up

के सी said...

inspiring, extremely healthy and positive post.

Onward said...

yayyyyy...i like happy endings...:)..and yes ur procastinator has once again penned down randomness ;-)

Sujatha Bagal said...

Glad things worked out well. And so well, too! Thanks for doing the follow up post.

Indrani said...

You have handled this so well.