Kareena Kapoor Khan On Importance of Immunisation for Kids

It’s the beginning of World Immunisation Week, a World Health Organisation recognised effort to stress the importance of and increase awareness about vaccines in both children and adults.

Earlier, FIT had caught up with actor Kareena Kapoor Khan, when she took on the responsibility of campaign ambassador for Serum Institute of India's latest vaccination and immunisation drive for kids. Actor and mother, Kareena Kapoor Khan, spoke to us about raising Taimur Ali Khan in a polluted environment, her mantra as a parent and how she makes sure that her kid is never over-scheduled and stressed.

If you had five advice to give to millennial parents, what would you say?

I think the advice would be like, you know what I am following. In fact, Saif always actually advised me that there’s nothing more than a happy mother that comes home, you know. So if it is that mother has to go out for five-six hours, if that makes her happy and if she comes home satisfied and happy she gives that quality time with (to?) her child. Then she’s focused, she’s all there and it’s never about the quantity of time. It’s always about quality. And that’s what I have always believed in, whether it’s my two hours with just Taimur and me. That is of utmost importance, that is where he’s nurtured, his confidence levels are boosted, he’s being loved. It’s like watering a plant. And then, of course, is protecting him from fatal diseases, following the vaccination charts, taking advice from the paediatrician, reading about it, getting and grasping knowledge on immunisation which is so important…is something that I think every mother should do. Nobody wants you know…when a child falls ill, it’s just earth-shattering.

The air around us is so polluted because of pollution and so much going on…so do you ever fear that you are raising your kid in such a harmful environment?

Of course, I mean, everybody, whether it’s fear due to pollution or whether it’s fear against deformities, or whether it’s fear against illnesses…there’s a constant fear for every parent, every mother or every father for that matter. Everybody wants to protect their child against it so we can take precautionary measures. We would want a greener city, we want cleaner air. That’s all that I can say, we must protect that. What’s your no-nonsense parenting mantra? I would want my child to just, you know learn manners. I would want him to be kind humble, polite…I think just like his (my?) parents. My parents taught me that. My mother’s always taught me to be a focused girl to be somebody who…whenever I go out don’t let anyone say that you are badly brought up. And I think I will always follow that advice as well for my child.

And you know when we send our kids to school there’s a lot of pressure that we are putting on the kids. Do good in extra-curricular. What do you have to say to parents who over-schedule their kids?

You know actually, I firmly believe that your child shows you the direction rather than the parent showing (the way to) the child. So, Saif and me are the kinds of parents where…Taimur is going to hold our hand and guide us to the things that he likes. Whether it’s in terms of sports or whether it’s in terms of education. What school he has to go and what sport he has to play. Our idea is to open him up to different things but he picks and chooses what he likes. We don’t want to put him through any pressure. We want him to guide us and show us what he wants to do.

And my very last question is, three things that you follow with Taimur while others may frown upon it?

I’m a working mother and there’s a lot of discussion on that and I am proud to be a working mother. I have a wonderful nurse who looks after him. I am not hiding that either. I am proud to have someone who can care and give him the nurturing which most people want to hide and want to be a hands-on mother and father. But yeah, both Saif and I are working and at the same time, we make it a point that one of us is always there. The third of all is I think, like I said that giving him the freedom to do what he wants. The freedom to let him grow, whether the world is watching him, which is unfortunate, but it’s not going to stop him from flying.