In today's day and age, both parents share responsibility of raising and nurturing the child. Traditionally fathers don't discuss parenting among each other as much as mothers do. This Father's Day, at Flipkart we tried to break-the-ice by creating a platform 'Circle of Dads' to get like minded seasoned, maturing and to-be dads to come and share their stories and learnings. It was fun to participate in the conversation with fellow dads, share reflection from my last 6 yrs as a Father.
Key reflections and take aways:
1. Build support systems and clarify responsibilities : If you're a single parent, co-parenting or with broader family, make sure you create your support systems, clarify yours and others responsibilities based on your respective strength. Have your fall back when you are in need of the support & care. Also reciprocate - be a support system for other parents.
2. Gift of reliving your childhood and growing again : I've learnt or relearnt lots of things in my parenthood journey which has made me better person both personally and professionally. Lots of leadership lessons find anecdote from my parenting experiences. I believe kids are most intuitive, inquisitive and first-principle thinkers, a virtue we abandon growing up. It's your change to reclaim and learn from natural gurus.
3. Father's guilt : We don't talk about it as much as mother's guilt, but it's real. Time spent away from kids to meet expectations of society, organisation, peers, friends & family is painful. Feeling of not being there during growing years of kids is difficult for most. New-age dads should regularly plan for them to connect with their child on daily, weekly, monthly basis on various activities like travel, story-telling, sharing, playing, movies etc. Being together is more important than staying together. This is essential for both the child and the dad to build long-lasting bond.
Happy Father’s Day to everyone !! Let’s share more as Dads….
At Flipkart, we believe in Equal Parenting, and our policies and benefits support parents irrespective of gender. However, there are certain age old-customs and thought processes at play that fathers need to navigate to fulfill their desire to be an equal and involved parent.
𝐂𝐢𝐫𝐜𝐥𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐃𝐚𝐝𝐬 was a recent heart-to-heart connect with Dads at Flipkart, an opportunity to exchange smiles and experiences, and nod in agreement as the panel brought to life some common stories of the new-age father! The riveting conversation featured our leaders - Abhijit Poonja (Director, Legal), Colonel Ravi Madhok (Senior Director, Asset Protection & Security) and Divyesh Shah (Senior Director, Marketplace and Retail Tech Engineering) moderated by Eric James (Director, L&D).
Key Takeaways for the Fathers from the session involved:
✔️ Listening to other people's perspectives
✔️ Fatherhood Anecdotes, including how to support children on a day to day basis
✔️ Taking feedback from your partner (better half) even if the framework created for parenting fails - help in rebuilding the confidence & reinforce your beliefs in being better the next time
#FathersDay #FlipsterDads #EqualParenting #DadConversations #ParenthoodMaximised #WeAreMaximizers
Varadharaju Janardhanan | Prajakta Kanaglekar | Sundar Vadivel Uthaman | Aakriti Chandra | Eric James | Pallavi Nanda | Petula Dias
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