Right from 30th April 2017, I have been waiting for this moment. For another year to dawn and for it to be April again. And now this just got real. April is almost upon us and it brings with it the annual blogging challenge of writing from A to Z. And now its time to put on our thinking caps, clean out the nibs and fill the pens with ink, prettify the writing desk, suck in some fresh air and hopefully some inspiration and just write.

Read my post on the importance of the month of April in my life here.

Words, words everywhere

The biggest and most important element of the #AtoZChallenge is figuring out what to write about. Last year I wrote about all things baby – right from myths about baby care, to the boy vs girl baby debate, to some fine motor development activities. Although the subject was baby at the core, the posts did not have a unifying theme around them. While this is not mandatory for the #AtoZChallenge I felt my posts for the #AtoZ2017 were like scattered stars in a dark universe, not really coming together to shine brightly on the audience.

Read my favourite post from last year – O for Olfactory and Y for the Y-chromosome

So this year I have decided to pick a theme and have all my posts tie into it. After thinking of, and weaving 26 posts in my head and then crumpling up the imaginary paper and indulging in some bin toss games (all in my mind of course) I narrowed down on my theme. I think it allows me wide enough scope to talk about a lot of different things and still be tied to the central concept of my blog which is all about baby, parenting and growing together as a family.

But first, the many avatars of the theme

I had wished for the #AtoZChallenge to give me some new content on my blog. I wanted to put up something which I had been wanting to talk about on my blog. I wanted to write about baby and children’s books, titles of which went from A to Z. #Babybooks it was going to be.

I kind of touched upon books here with AtoZ 2017 – B is for Books

That was until I realised that most of babyT’s favourite books all began with T. I also did not have the resources to procure all the books beforehand for April.

Ok, how about baby and toddler food? That was all I was doing these days… experimenting with vegan cooking, transforming the usually dairy-rich Indian cuisine to something that was safe for my dairy allergic son to consume.

We even made our own birthday cake. Vegan of course.

I wasn’t sure I could come up with 26 recipes for that one though.

Then I woke up one morning to a message from a friend who was currently living abroad.

Hey Tara, tell me all about these new fundas that you are into and know of, like cloth diapers and baby carriers. My sister is pregnant and I want to send her some stuff.

A bulb lit up in my head.

I, MommyingbabyT, knew of all the new age parenting concepts that were prevalent today. Most of these I was practising actively. I could talk from the heart about this. The content would suit my blog just perfectly. And so, my theme is…

Parenting in 201X

New age parenting is definitely not new. Well, most of it anyway.

Much of it is the result of nature and age-old practices (such as babywearing) which got researched, analysed by scientists – both life sciences as well as social scientists and came to be what it is today. Families who practice new age parenting are more aware of how their actions and decisions impact their child, and the environment he is raised in.

New age parenting involves paying attention to the baby’s cues and moulding parenting principles to suit their own situations. It is not parenting a child but being parented by the child.

Most of the new age parents reached adulthood/ parenthood in the 2000s (i.e. children born in the 80s and early 90s. I scraped through on that one by being born at the fag end of the 70s.) These kids grew up in a technological boom period – from colour TVs to satellites to mobile phones. It all happened very fast. Yet they grew up with a reserve of information backing their every move. They rely on the internet (and blogs) for information and support than asking their elders. The world was a melting pot of cultures, colours and perspectives and today that shows in their parenting too.

New age parenting is a team effort, it is about trusting the child to know what’s best for his growth and development. It is not a blind application but something that is backed by decades and centuries of human development. And this tested and proved under the lens of science. It is a back to basics approach. And it is supremely satisfying.

Now for April the 1st to dawn and for my posts to flow…

Excited by this challenge? Do subscribe to my blog to get all the post notifications. Also join me and many other bloggers from India as we reveal our theme for #AtoZ2018 together with Blogchatter.