TOT for the day: Let the little ones be

It should come as no surprise that a celebrity’s star quality trickles down to their family members with the public eye constantly roving over the younglings too. There is little point in tucking away the young ones from the limelight, a high road embraced by stars like Kareena Kapoor-Khan and Shahid Kapoor who often get clicked when they are out with their kids.  

However, the incessant attention is not fair to the kids who are exposed to public attention at an age when they can’t decide for themselves if they want it.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was left in tears at a recent  private event, when her pleas to stop clicking pictures of her daughter Aaradhya fell on deaf ears. The world has become a larger place since social media and pictures float into our lives inevitably. Shah Rukh Khan’s fans are often treated to pictures of his youngest son AbRam and daughter Suhana. Recently, Suhana Khan who usually poses for the shutterbugs with her father, arrived earlier with her friends and was frazzled when the paps descended on her. Another time, little AbRam had to cover his eyes to avoid the media glare as they were papped returning from London.

Growing up in the public eye is a given when children are born into the celebrity sphere and while they are incredibly fortunate, the perils are large too. As an actress and a mother herself, Bhavana Ramanna comments, “I think it’s natural for people to be curious about a  celebrity’s life as it is constructed around the public. When it comes to children, it becomes a priority to protect their innocence as that amount of exposure is not appropriate at their age. The event was obviously personal for Aishwarya to bring her daughter, but you can’t blame the paparazzi who were also just doing their job. The child was the one who became a scapegoat here.”

Expert Quote
Psychologist Priyanka MB opines, “Children of celebrities might mostly feel like they are on the lens. This restricts their normal social maturity development, and their childlike innocence is usually lost. Between the ages of five and 12 years, children develop their sense of competence, when positively reinforced by parents, they become industrious, otherwise they develop a low self-concept. As the saying goes, ‘children are like wet clay and parents are the potters.’”