Parents are not your unpaid maids or babysitters - let them rest in their old days

Much ado has been made over the SC court ruling - the debate is ongoing on how the ruling will affect future cases and in the enthusiasm of deciding whether it is cruelty for a married man to leave his parents, parents are forgotten.

Many Indians go to work, leaving their children with their grandparents. While it's the primary reason why Indian parents want to get their children married is to have grandkids and will never say it's a burden to take care of them, it's not ok to take complete advantage of that munificence of the parents.

I have personally seen how mothers are treated like maids - they do all the household chores and take care of the grandchildren for good measure. The mothers don't complain of the difficulties but making elderly people work in an age where they should take a break is not a very nice thing to do, cultural or not.

Also, parents nowadays don't like anyone complaining about their kids including their own parents. And, to make up for their absence, parents these days get their kids gadgets with internet connection. Not many grandparents are tech savvy and the risk of all the evils in the net seeping into the children's curious brain is high and the grandparents have no action plan to buff that.

There may arise many questions on how letting strangers like maids or at creches or daycare centers take care of your children in their formative years is not exactly healthy, assigning your well worn parents with the burden of taking care of your children isn't healthy for your parents.

Your kids are your responsibility, not your parents'. If you must have your parents to take care of your children and managing your home, then assign a maid to help with the load of work. Your parents are not your unpaid maids or babysitters - let them chill in their gloaming days.

~Pattu Mamee~ #OnlyAtKK