Jargogled Impressions.

Our understanding of culture takes on a completely different meaning when we have children. Our interpretation of culture moves away from it implying a recognition of our roots or an exposure to foreign cultures, to presenting a useful framing that helps us share our learned patterns of human knowledge, beliefs, and behavior with our kids. There is a sense of nostalgia built-in as well, to preserve the observances, the appreciation of societal tenets, the religious communities.

Through this framing, our mindset shifts too, in the importance we attach to culture and our knowledge of it. Suddenly, in this new role, we find it a moral imperative to imbibe our culture just so the implicit knowledge, tradition, and practice is not lost in the ether as our kids grow. In a sense, we feel like even after our physical bodies dissipate, the values and the implicit knowledge baked into our culture will stay for our kids. That this shared cultural heritage will build a cultural identity for them, and that they will thrive through this sense of belonging and rootedness that we are often searching for in our own middle age.

As parents, we naturally gravitate towards imparting the cultural knowledge that we have been exposed to and have adopted in our own lives. This might be familiar to young Indian parents who constantly feel the pressure to really adopt religious observances and actually savor their own cultural heritage. As we change however, we must keep in mind that we are not subtly shifting away from exploring other cultures as much as consciously moving-in with our own. The pursuit of cultural understanding is not a zero-sum game but an infinite game. In fact, being able to compare and contrast different cultural practices can be a powerful lever to encourage critical thinking and inclusivity.

The world is increasingly coming closer as technology eliminates the physical barriers that existed before. As parents, we can and should work towards encouraging the mindset of global citizenship for our kids with a kind of cultural competency that helps them navigate this interconnected world with empathy and respect. But cultural exploration is a mindset that can be aided or abetted by a strong cultural identity. Our job as parents is to model our cultural identity in such a way that is catalyzes something like – strong cultural identity, weakly held. One that encourages deep rootedness and critical thinking.