Some Of The Most Bizarre Pro-Natalist Behaviours I’ve Come Across In India
Being a parent makes some people behave in strange unpredictable ways
Introduction
For some weird reason unknown to humankind, people believe the rules of civilized society no longer apply to them once they’ve had kids. They believe they’re entitled to do certain things that they would have never imagined doing in the past, and are power tripping on the confidence that comes from having kids and a family to protect at home.
Their parental instincts kick in so strong you’d be forgiven for believing we’re still in the jungles carrying out life as primeval cavemen and cavewomen. They get on a power trip because they feel its a valid justification for protecting their children even when they know they’re in the wrong, and even if their child isn’t in any mortal danger.
Their existing ego gets painted with a thick coat of entitlement after having kids, something that sane logical human beings just cannot wrap their heads around.
Here are a few bizarre pro-natalist behaviours I’ve come across in India:
Driving with their children seated on their laps
This happens every day in India.
Every. Single. Day.
Not a day goes by without encountering an overconfident parent driving with his baby son or daughter dangerously perched upon his lap in the drivers seat. For some weird unexplainable reason, they believe that bonding with their spawn while driving supersedes the need to follow road rules or even the safety of their child for that matter.
“If any Indian parent went abroad and tried a stunt like having a child sit on a driver’s lap, they might find themselves crying at an Indian embassy or high commission because their child would have been taken away by child protective services.”
Dear Indian pro-natalists, there is nothing cute or funny about driving with your child seated on your lap. Your childs head could be crushed between your body and the airbag deployed from the steering wheel in case of a head on collision with another vehicle. They could also get flung around inside the car in the event of a side collision or tumble due to lack of a worn seat belt. Even if you attempted to pull off such a stunt on a residential inner street, there are dozens of road obstacles that could catch you by surprise, forcing you to hit the breaks hard gravely injuring yourself and your child in the process. A stray animal, or God forbid, another child itself could suddenly dart across the road, a ball from a nearby playground could roll onto it, or a deep pothole might appear all of a sudden, all situations forcing you to abruptly slam on the breaks.
So for the sake of your very own child and other road users out there who might start feeling guilty for absolutely no fault of theirs, please keep your child safely secured to a child seat in the rear at all times while driving.
Your concentration must be on the road, not on how much fun your son or daughter is having. This isn’t a theme park ride.
Allowing their kids to take the car for a spin
As a major demographic of Indians move into the upper and upper middle-class brackets, many are getting the chance to own a car for the very first time. Caution is being thrown to the wind as parents are allowing their teenage sons to get behind the wheel all in pursuit of social media likes and instant fame.
The world is no stranger to this particular shade of bad parenting.
In the days of yore, one could easily get away with this particular misdemeanor due to sheer lack of evidence or enforcement mechanisms. Besides, the world was so sparsely populated back then that you could easily allow your kid to take the car for a joyride on an inner street late at night without as much as a single soul noticing.
However, a lot has changed over the years. There’s not only CCTV cameras everywhere, but nowadays almost everyone carries a camera phone in their pockets which allows them to livestream instances of traffic violations to the internet via an array of online social media streaming services.
Thankfully, social media is a double-edged sword. And the very platforms that violators use to post all their rule-breaking shenanigans online come back to bite them in the form of arrests and criminal proceedings for allowing a minor to sit in the drivers seat and for driving a car without a license.
Think their children are entitled to certain things in the public domain just by the sheer virtue of being children and nothing else
Whether it is outrightly shaming solo travellers for window seats on planes and trains, or cutting lines in queues just because they have kids, there’s no limit to the number of places and situations pro-natalist Indians can act entitled and privileged just because they have kids.
On one instance, a sibling pair were running around in my apartment complex and entered the gym where I was busy exercising and began playing with the equipment. When I told them that the gym isn’t a playhouse for kids to run around and that they could injure themselves messing around with gym equipment, I got a earful from their parents for trying to discipline them as someone who didn’t know them personally.
You just can’t argue with stupid!
Seems like this particular one is a global phenomenon and not something that’s solely restricted to Indian parenting:
Rushing to their son’s or daughter’s defence even when they know they’re in the wrong
For some weird unknown reason a sort of primeval tribalism tends to take over the minds of Indian pro-natalists whenever their kids are involved in scuffles and altercations with others. All their education, self-restraint, discipline, common sense, and compassion for others goes straight out the window when it comes to such situations. They feel their child is a gift to humankind incapable of wrongdoing or acting mutinously towards others.
They are unable to digest the fact that their child might have been the instigator in a particular case of bullying or harassment. They believe their kids are angels from heaven incapable of harbouring any vile or evil intentions towards their friends or classmates.
They defend their childrens’ actions tooth and nail until proven wrong. Heck! Some of them even defend their child actions knowing that they are the ones in the wrong! I have so many memories of this happening from my childhood that I don’t even know which particular instance to even begin with.
Allowing their kids to be cruel towards animals
Not sensitizing kids to the feelings and emotions of stray animals is one thing. But willfully turning a blind eye to their children behaving cruelly towards animals is totally something else!
There’s one ignorant class of parents out there who fail to teach their kids to be kind, loving, and respectful towards animals. They happily look the other way as their sons or daughters throw stones at stray dogs, maim them, or chase them across the street. Then one fine day when the innocent dog decides that its had enough and chooses to retaliate by biting the kid, it is hunted down and beaten to death by all the adults.
I’ve personally witnessed children being insensitive towards and harming animals on the street and the poor innocent souls making a dash for it, almost coming under the wheels of a passing vehicle on the road.
On one such occassion, a child shooed away a dog on a side street by chasing it while pretending to hold a stone in his hand. The poor pooch almost came under the wheels of my car as it made a dash towards the main road to escape the demon child. I had to swerve and break hard so that the innocent pupper wouldn’t pay with its life by coming under my wheels for absolutely no fault of his/hers other than being born on a planet dominated by the most vile and disgusting species on it.
Conclusion
Yes, there are entitled people everywhere who come from all walks of life. But Indian pro-natalists are a special breed of entitled because they’re all so likeminded in their feeling of entitlement to certain experiences or to do certain activities in the public domain just by the virtue of having children.
As an Indian resident, have you ever come across these entitled pro-natalist behaviours outside? Is there any instance of pro-natalists acting out that made you go “aw hell no” from within and secretly wishing that such people never crossed paths with you in life? Is there a story behind it? Is there also something I might have missed out in the list?
Do let me know in the comments bar to the side.
