Stay connected with nature, not malls

Stay connected with nature, not malls
New Indian Express

BANGALORE: How often do children in the city experience the joy amidst nature, building mud pies in the backyard, examining the creatures found there or getting delighted upon whose finger a honeybee or butterfly has just alighted.

In fact, these are less common pastimes these days. Children are losing vital aspects of healthy development as they spend surprisingly less time playing, climbing trees, fishing, or doing anything outdoors and more time at malls and multiplexes in the city.

Thus children are slowly getting detached with the nature and are not interested about their local environment.

Presently, as majority families are small and nuclear, the needs of parents get priority. Shopping, socialising and even birthday celebrations take place at malls and children accompany their parents.

But are malls appropriate for growing children? According to child psychologists, it is not. Children are exposed to consumerist and materialistic environment here.

This mall culture has an impact on growing child’s personality. Basically, children learn best when they engage all of their senses, especially when it comes to nature. Children explore natural surroundings by learning touch-feel-smell in garden.

According to child psychologist Dr Sulata Shenoy of Sagar Apollo Hospital, they miss out such learning process in this artificial set-up.

Earlier, children would spend much time outdoors but now they spend most time indoors-largely because of their addiction to electrical sockets like video games, computers and DVDs.

City psychologist are seeing a change in behaviour of children. According to them, they are losing interest very fast and the spirit is missing.

Dr Shenoy said the malls project vibrant colours, high noise level, bright lights, costlier things and larger than life depiction. Rather, children need a state of acceptance and calmness to appreciate nature.

They are tuned to artificial environment. And frequent visits to malls make them lose the training to be quiet and receptive. Thus, many are unable to appreciate nature in its true form like the chirping of birds, serene and calm atmosphere, she added.

It is also common to see teenagers hanging out in malls and multiplexes. According to psychiatrist of St Martha’s Hospital Dr Madhukar, children are driven by a consumer world. They are attracted to luxurious goods and they can be quite demanding.

‘‘And parents at times try to compensate their lack of time, love and affection with goodies. This encourages children to urge for more,’’ he said. Nature is not just a quaint form of leisure but a critical part of child development.

Thus, children need to explore the world around them and parents should help children connect with nature. Allow the child to interpret the outdoors in his or her own way.