YOUR CHILD… Someone’s Wedding

Weddings are exciting for children, but managing them can be a challenge for parents. Here’s how you can make it a great day for your kids – and yourself.

-  Kayal Arivalan

Have you ever worried about how you will attend an elaborate or long-distance wedding with your young child? You are not alone. Every parent with a young child experiences this trepidation when an invitation to a wedding arrives. To get your kids to socialise without throwing a tantrum somewhere along the way, you need special abilities. Getting them ready and keeping them in their wedding attire demands a different set of skills. In addition, if your child enjoys running around large spaces, you will have no choice but to ditch your heels to run behind them. A little planning in advance will certainly help you navigate the whole wedding scenario smoothly. Here’s how you can manage your child without creating a cringeworthy situation.

RESOLVE TO KEEP CALM

A wedding throws up a whole lot of new experiences for children, and they can become confused and irritable at not being able to comprehend what is going on around them, especially when there are so many new people around, many of whom will insist on pulling their cheeks and talking gobbledygook to them. Toddlers especially cannot figure out how to communicate emotions, and will turn to sobbing, yelling and perhaps being downright rude. “First things first, parents need to keep calm through the child’s meltdown without shouting or imposing discipline on them,” avers Bhopal-based parenting coach