Actor R Madhavan has created a niche for himself in Bollywood with films like Dhurandhar, Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein, 3 Idiots and more. However, he has also been a hands-on father to his son, Vedaant Madhavan,
who has gone on to be an athlete and a freestyle swimmer. The actor took his job as a parent so seriously that he has willfully shifted base to the UAE to ensure his son has everything he needs to succeed. While his son continues to keep making progress by leaps and bounds, the actor too has seen his career take off with the Dhurandhar franchise.
And in a recent conversation with the 100 Year Life Project by ACKO with Radhika Gupta, R Madhavan spoke about his parenting tactics with the host. He shared how he has tried to ensure that his son is grounded and humble, despite growing up in a financially privileged environment.
Speaking about teaching respect and awareness of privilege, R. Madhavan said, “The thing I made sure that Vedaant did was to acknowledge, maybe not as much as my friends, but most certainly acknowledge the liftman, the guard, the drivers, you know, and not call them aayas and stuff like that. Call them didis instead.”
He went on to add, “And I made sure that if the watchman came and said, ‘You are a very polite child, he always says namaste to me,’ I thought my job was well done.”
A new study has found that a father’s parenting style can have an affect on the kid’s heart health in the future. So, parenting is no long just a mother’s domain. Like R Madhavan, it is important that fathers step up and take on these duties as well.
In this study, scientists observed the interactions between the child and their parents. They later checked in with the 10-month-old infants and their families when the kids were at ages 2 and 7. The results of this study have been published in the journal Health Psychology.
According to a report in The New York Times, the researchers found that fathers who were less attentive to their 10-month-olds were likely to have trouble co-parenting. This would result in the dads either withdrawing or competing with mothers for the kids’ attention. And when they made their final observation of the 7-year-olds, the scientists found that the children of these fathers were more likely to have markers of poor heart or metabolic health, such as inflammation and high blood sugar.
