Culture

What is The Greta Effect and how does it impact your Parenting?

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Parents just like all of us, are normal social beings and they too get influenced by the current happenings around the world, they choose the right things and try to inculcate them in their children for their enhanced understanding and better values.One such effect on the minds of parents is the Greta effect. The Swedish 16 year old Greta Thunberg became a viral sensation this spring, for initiating a student movement to compel adults to take action on climate change. She slammed the leaders and people in position about their ignorant attitude towards the climate and held them responsible for destroying her childhood.

Instead of going to school, Greta has been protesting in front of the Swedish parliament with a sign reading: School Strike for Climate. Students worldwide are following her lead. But before bringing this out to the world, she convinced her parents about her insecurity and anxiety. She showered them with facts and showed them documentaries. After a while she could convince them, which made her realize that she was capable of making a huge difference. Dubbed the 'Greta Effect', named after the teenage activist Greta Thunberg, it is being seen that more adults are encouraging their children to become activists in the new decade.

Parents do not want their children to be in a protected cocoon and spoon fed, rather they are promoting the progressive thoughts of the young minds and are supporting them in putting that out in the world without any fear. Because of the widespread effect, children these days are becoming more vocal about what they feel or think. They have become opinionated. And they have the courage to do so because they are not facing much opposition from their parents as earlier ,which is the biggest driving force. Parenting is a complex process. It is the summation of promoting and supporting the physical, emotional, social, and intellectual development of a child from infancy to adulthood. It takes into account every minute detail of the child and what personality he/she will get moulded into.

The child definitely grows to be mature but a parent will always be a parent. To briefly mention there are three aspects any parent would think of focusing upon which are ensuring health and safety of the child, making them capable to lead individual and independent lives and transmitting cultural and social values. A high-quality parent-child relationship is critical for healthy development. Research found that 85 per cent of parents would be 'proud' for their child to campaign for a cause they care about, and teach adults at the same time. There has been a boom in the sales of books which have been written on empowering young people to save the planet. The publishers have been calling it an effect of The Greta Effect. Parents are listening to their children's concerns and are responding by changing how they behave, according to the parenting website.

The effect has been the reason for a positive change. Hope you would pay heed to what concerns your child has and put thoughts into it, as what they say matters.