Many students like Roshan flooded shops over the weekend trying to spot the right bag, pencil box, tiffin and water bottle. While animation characters Tom and Jerry and Spider Man are popular among toddlers, teenagers have been vying for TV serial celebrities from Hannah Montana, High School Musical and Camp Rock.

Sharman Majmudar, 5, who accompanied his mother to buy his first school bag said, “Tom and Jerry is my favourite and thus I want them on my school bag.” Sharman’s mother Dharini said, “It is amazing to step into a shop for children. This is the first time I am doing this kind of shopping. Till now, he would use whatever bag I got for him, but this year, he kept insisting that he wanted to buy his own school bag, matching water bottle, pencil box and tiffin.”

Sejal Chokshi, mother of Yug, who is in senior KG in Udgam School for Children said, “I could never have imagined the variety of school accessories available in the market. Also, children compete among themselves in class about who has what bag. It is amusing but worrying as well.”

According to Rakesh Lala, owner of a popular kids store on CG Road, there is a new rage every year and this year it is Ben10 among boys and Hannah Montana among the girls.

“Pokemon, which was popular last year, has suddenly lost its charm. Many parents come to return school bags purchased only because their children don’t take a liking to it. Elder boys and girls still prefer plain bags in dark colours with lots of pockets,” said Lala.

source:timesofindia

If your kid is a BEN 10 fan, you can download these cool ben 10 coloring pages and keep them happy.

My brother said –

“Why don’t you take an umbrella with you !”

My sister said –

“Why didn’t you wait till the rain stopped !”

My father angrily said –

“You will only learn after getting a cold !”

But my mother while drying my hair said –

“Stupid rain !”

“A Mother has a baby”
This we know is true
“But God can you be a Mother,
When you baby’s not with you?”

“You, you can,” He replied
With Confidence in His voice
“I give many women babies,
When they leave is not their choice.

Some I send for a lifetime,
And others for the day.
And some I send to feel your womb,
But there’s no need to stay.”

“I just don’t understand this God
I want my baby to be here.”
He took a deep breath and cleared His throat,
And then I saw the tear.

“I wish I could show you,
What your child is doing today.
If you could see your child’s smile,
With all the other children and say…

‘We go to Earth to learn our lessons,
Of love and life and fear.
My Mommy loved me oh so much,
I got to come straight here.

I feel so lucky to have a Mom,
Who had so much love for me.
I learned my lessons very quickly,
My Mommy set me free.

I miss my Mommy oh so much,
But I visit her every day.
When she goes to sleep,
On her pillow’s where I lay

I stroke her hair and kiss her cheek,
And whisper in her ear.
Mommy don’t be sad today,
I’m your baby and I’m here.’

“So you see my dear sweet ones,
your children are okay.
Your babies are born here in My home,
And this is where they’ll stay.

They’ll wait for you with Me,
Until your lesson’s through.
And on the day that you come home
they’ll be at the gates for you.

So now you see what makes a Mother,
It’s the feeling in your heart
it’s the love you had so much of
Right from the very start.

Though some on earth may not realize, you are a Mother.
Until their time is done.
They’ll be up here with Me one day
and know that you are the best one!”

Written by Jennifer Wasik
A tribute to mothers everywhere who do not have their children with them.

A look at 50,000 young children found that those whose mothers were shorter than 57 inches were 70 percent more likely to have died by age 5 than those whose mothers were at least 63 inches tall.

Shorter women are likely to be less healthy as adults — height can indicate a woman’s overall health and nutrition from her childhood. Women with a smaller uterus may have more complications during gestation, the researchers said.

“What the study shows is the critical need to invest in children, and especially girls, as the payoff is not only for them as children and adults, but for their offspring as well,” said S.V. Subramanian of the Harvard School of Public Health who along with colleagues conducted the research.

Their report, published in this week’s Journal of the American Medical Association, said that more than 2 million children younger than 5 years old died in India in 2006.

This is more than in any other country, accounting for about one in four childhood deaths worldwide, according to United Nations data.

The findings “suggest the presence of inter-generational transfer of poor health from mother to offspring,” said Subramanian.

“Since maternal height itself is a consequence of a mother’s childhood environment, our study is suggestive of the long-run and durable adverse impact of poor childhood conditions of the mother on the health of her offspring 15 to 30 years later.”

While the study did not generalize the findings beyond India, the authors did say that maternal height is a useful benchmark which “reflects a mother’s health stock accumulated through her life’s course” and that a few other studies have linked stunted growth to childhood mortality. 

Discuss this article in our Parenting Forum for Indians

source:reuters