Being a Dolphin Parent : Parenting in 21st Century

Parenting the Dolphin Way : Being a Dolphin parent!

Parenting has become a lot more challenging, full of all twists and turns. Sometimes the road seems to be full of pricky thorns and at times they seem to be rosy. Digitization is spreading its roots deeper and deeper, lifestyle changes are being hastened, and all this gamut has prompted a new side to the current day parenting. Though, being a parent, we are always doing our best, but we lose the track, when that best takes the form of being “Over protective”. Then we’re forced to see our kids losing things emotionally and psychologically due to lack of much needed resilience, stamina to accept failures, grit and something above IQ and EQ.

Being  a Parenting Blogger, I recently got a chance to attend an event organized by Dolphin POD. Dr. Shimi Kang, an award-winning Harvard-trained medical doctor, and expert on the science of human motivation, was to share her opinion on raising Future Fit children. Dr. Kang is the author of the best selling book -The Self-Motivated Kid and The Dolphin Parent: A Guide to Raising Healthy, Happy, and Motivated Kids. Her research and concepts serve as the basis for the Dolphin POD centre.

We need to confront that we all are in 21st century and what we need today are 21st Century Parenting hacks.

Tiger Parenting or Jelly fish parenting?

Can you think of being a “perfectionist and always an achiever” Tiger parent? An authoritative Tiger Parenting, will leave your children with amazing accolades and medals in their journey but they will lack the intrinsic values, the internal joy and satisfaction. They’re always targeting a goal and working towards winning that race, but in this path, they never faced the real life, never learnt what gratitude and satisfaction are and how to enjoy the life.

Another approach is of being a “Jelly fish” parent, wherein there are no set of rules, no guidance. This technique results in direction less kids, who make numerous mistakes, but don’t get to learn the lesson out of it.

• Are your children rewarded only for the right and winning approach and snubbed for any mistakes?
• Are your children unaware of what a failure means?
• You have not initiated any skillset learnings for children?
• You are not aware of your child’s day to day activities

If your answer to any of these questions is a “yes”, then you are in extreme category of Parenting. We need to appreciate the fact that children get a wonderful learning environment and they try hard to overcome the failures, when they are prompted to take the opportunities, praised and rewarded for the efforts.

“Mind it, praising for efforts and not for the final outcomes”. Participation matters more.

In this journey, kids learn to take risks, they make mistakes but learn from them, develop creative approaches, enters into more of social bonding and this is what is must for a child when they are growing.

This is the approach of “Dolphin parent”, who try to create a balance of ambitions and life skills, failures and winning’s, who provoke kids to take calculated risks and be creative; trace the path, not alone but along with the community, i.e. The Dolphin Way! And this is what Dolphin POD centre is about.

They allow kids to experiment, make mistakes, may be taste the failure, but stand up again, be more innovative and achieve the self – satisfaction. This is a learning journey, life is not “Mistake or Failure Proof”. Life is all about learning from the fall and getting up again with more zeal, with better thinking, more courage and trust. This learning cure involves lots of gratitude, empathy, creativity and trust in self and the team. They nurture kids socially and creatively.

What does the POD of Dolphin POD stands for :

P- Play :

Well its not just play with toy, rather it involves the “Play of life”. When life is explored playfully with the art and craft, music, drama, puzzles and many more experimentations, they lead to creativity in the child. These explorations involve experimenting with new things and developing self confidence.

O- Others :

This is the essence of the world and this component cannot be ruled out of our lives for even a single day. Others means, associating with friends, working with team mates, communicating the feelings to others. Various such sessions and group activities help kids become more extrovert, believe in team work and makes them more social.

D – Downtime :

Keeping our minds busy 24*7, is not the right way to sustain. Hence, the concept of DOWNTIME is must, wherein we need to be calm, meditate, energize through mindfulness, practice gratitude. This unwinding of the brain, help us in emotional wellbeing and encourage positive constructive thoughts.

And this POD is achieved by inculcating 21st century skills of “Consciousness Quotient (CQ)”, which thrives on 5 C’s for an integrated brain functioning.

• Creativity : The most important factor of 21st century to differentiate oneself.
• Critical Thinking : encourages problem solving and helps you identify the opportunities laid in the journey. Even a bumpy road has a smooth future!
• Communication : Promotes effectively expressing your thoughts & feelings.
• Contribution : Lend a helping hand to someone and experience the pure bliss in it.
• Collaboration : Helps one believe in Team spirit and healthy relations.

And that’s how they achieve these CQ, by developing the skills of Emotional Wellbeing, Adaptability, Social Leadership, Innovation, Ethics and Resiliency.

The experiential transition in your child will be in the form of a complete “Human”!

This was a wonderful learning experience to me as a parent in 21st century. While we struggle to build our kids in this over competitive world, we need to keep our senses open to allow them to live the life and not just participate in the rat race.

We’ll soon be hosting an exclusive interview with Dr. Shimi Kang, Dolphin POD, to understand her philosophies of life’s experiences and what she has to say to our readers.

Till Then Stay Tuned!

You would love to read some Positive Parenting tips!