Beliefs on Parenting and Childhood in India

In India, the family is a central unit of social existence and the socialization of children is a key function. Cultural scripts, parents own experiences, family situations and location guide parenting and familial practices. Parents’ beliefs and ethnotheories contain explicit and implicit ideas about the manner in which children ought to be raised. With increasing global interaction and urban movement, the urban Indian family is continually faced with the challenge of keeping up with the fast pace of change. Such change exerts tremendous pressure on the ethos of the family as well as on parenting goals and motivations. This paper explores the nature of parental beliefs or ethnotheories among Indian families. The relatively unexplored territory of everyday conversations, interactions and routines within families has been used to access the nature and source of parents’ ethnotheories. The paper specifically focuses on the manner in which mothers organize the daily routines of young children in the age group 3-6 years. The narratives provide a rich description of family life and have been organized within significant domains of childhood such as feeding and eating, regulation of behavior, development and learning, interpersonal relationships, agency for children and parental aspirations. Families living in Delhi, India formed a part of the study. The influence of cultural and familial diversity as well as situational factors was found to contribute largely to the multiplicity of beliefs. The rapidly changing urban situation indicates a need to renew ideas about parenting and childhood in India.