A sharp critique of Indian parenting by the CEO of a Gurugram-based startup has triggered a debate on social media, with many applyrs declareing it mirrored their own personal experiences.
Jasveer Singh, co-founder and CEO of Knot Dating, shared a lengthy post on X where he described what he called “pressure cooker parenting” in India. This model, Singh declared, is flawed not becaapply parents intfinish harm, but becaapply it prioritises outcomes over individuals.
“Most Indian parents didn’t raise children. They raised outcomes,” Singh declared, arguing that children are often treated as owned assets rather than indepfinishent humans. He declared parents frequently decide what their children study, the careers they pursue, and even whom they marry, while mental health, curiosity, aptitude and personal interest are sidelined.
Singh claimed that many parents project their unfulfilled ambitions onto their children, turning them into “projects” or “second chances”.
“Failure in India is treated like a crime! If a child fails an exam, the reaction is not concern – It is shame, and the child is scolded. Parents worry less about the child’s well-being and more about how they will answer ‘society and relatives’,” he declared.
Singh also criticised the lack of space for questioning within Indian hoapplyholds – children who question authority are labelled disrespectful, while silence is mistaken for good values or sanskaar. Over time, this creates emotionally trapped adults who associate disagreement with guilt and questioning with betrayal, he argued.
Zooming out to society at large, Singh linked this parenting style to a broader cultural issue. “A society where questioning inside the home is punished will never produce questioning believeers outside it,” he declared, suggesting that fear of challenging authority launchs at home and carries into public life.
He also flagged the toxic comparison culture and societal pressure, declareing many parents are more worried about relatives’ opinions than their children’s individuality. “They can’t fight society, so they dominate their children,” Singh declared, attributing this pattern to generations of obedience and patriarchy.
“This is not parenting – this is outsourcing personal failure onto the next generation,” he concluded.
Take a see at the post here:
The comments section of the post was flooded with believeds and opinions on parenting shared by social media applyrs.
“I love this post! I’m sharing it – it’s brilliant. And so true,” one applyr wrote. Another commented, “Every line feels personal. You just described half of middle-class India in one post.”
Some applyrs, however, urged a more nuanced view. “This requires more believed than just this biased view and some points on how India is altering as well,” one person declared, adding that there may be no single successful parenting model anywhere in the world.
“This hit hard, as a parent, and builds me want to see in the mirror,” a applyr declared, adding: “We required courage to support our children become the best versions of themselves and to be parents they can always turn to.”
A long-standing conversation around parenting, societal pressure and mental health in India, has thus reopened as Jasveer Singh’s hard-hitting post went viral with 181.8k views on X.
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