Any parent would tell you that 2025 has been quite the roller coaster. Unprecedented interruptions to school schedules occurred, similar to those last observed during the COVID-19 epidemic.
Early on, the Indo-Pak conflict resulted in the suspension of lessons for a few days, which also created a sense of uneasiness. Due to rain, storms, or the persistent smog, children returned to hybrid courses multiple times this year. Parents hurried to adjust their schedules to meet these changes, which were frequently revealed at the last minute, as Wi-Fi networks groaned under the strain of additional bandwidth.
Multiple urgent discussions were held to allay concerns due to the fear that news of conflicts and tragedies brought. Many parents intend to update their credentials with their newfound abilities as manic multitaskers and “anytime anyplace counselors” after this year.
2025 also saw the addition of new terms to the Gen Alpha lexicon. As tweens and teens updated their vocabulary with words like “bussin,” “gyatt,” “mewing,” and “fanum tax,” parents who had just started to level up found themselves back at the beginning. Ghibli aesthetic and “6 7” are two new trends that became widespread, though I am not entirely sure what the latter refers to.
The Swifties will also remember 2025 as the year they came out of their reverie when their idol’s new album, The Life of a Showgirl, did not live up to their expectations. Some even changed their allegiance to K-Pop Demon Hunters, a fad that spread throughout the world. Later, 1975’s Sholay proved to be a great family bonding exercise, with three generations watching the classic on the big screen together after Gen Z lost its mind over Saiyaara. The Indian women’s cricket and squash teams, who demonstrated a great deal of perseverance, became younger idols for children.
Families began looking to South-East and West Asia for higher education due to increased immigration regulations and growing prejudice against immigrants in the West; this tendency was encouraged by new collaborations amongst top colleges. This change will also continue to take place in the upcoming year.
If there was one thing that worried parents, it was vaping, with pupils as young as 12 or 13 using vape pens and e-cigarettes as a result of peer pressure. Teachers, parents, and counselors began collaborating on preventive education, but many people are still having difficulty with it. This year, one also heard about several parenting philosophies, the most popular of which was “plastic wrap parenting,” which is characterized by overbearing control over the child.
Overall, the year proved to be hectic and thrilling for both parents and children. It was significant for me since my daughter became my unofficial tech support as she approached adolescence. We developed a few new routines, such as bonding over theater and Lego thriller series. For me, 2025 was characterized by these little but significant moments with her rather than by significant events or labels imposed by the internet.
Like me, there are a lot of parents, teachers, counselors, and writers whose year was enhanced by discussions with kids about books, apps, OTT series, and social media that inspired them to think about the world in new ways.
Expression over perfection: Purnima Sampat, the creator and facilitator of The Art Studio Mumbai, a studio that offers art education programs for all age groups, observed that children’s art transformed by the time they reached grades 3–4. The bold scribblers start to falter. According to her, “children started to detect a gap between what their hands can build and what they envisage.”
They began to associate realism with “excellent” art, and the discrepancy began to feel like a failure. She read Ish by Peter A. Reynolds in class this year after finding it in a bookstore. Ramon’s brother’s laughter causes him to stop drawing in the book. That resonated with a lot of children. The word “ish” then appeared. “My animal resembles a horse.” “This reminds me of a castle.” “One child looked up and said, ‘So… ish is allowed?’ with genuine relief,” she says. Less paper was crumpled after that.
Kids have odd marks for a longer period of time. Rather than apologizing for what they had not accomplished, they described what they were attempting to do. Ish allowed kids to continue in a language they could understand, something that no amount of explanation could.
Understanding pride: Harry Woodgate’s Granddad’s Pride opened Siddhant Shah’s eyes. Particularly in India, we never consider talking to our grandparents about gender and queerness. The founder of Access For ALL and a disability access expert adds, “This book destroyed so many mental barriers for me as well.” It provided him with new resources to address intersectionality and gender issues with children.
Granddad’s Pride is now available in schools and corporate settings as part of Access For ALL’s READ_Inclusive pop-up library. Although the teachers were a little hesitant to let the team keep this book in the classrooms, it encouraged kids to engage in-depth discussions on the subject in a setting free from criticism.
A doll that resembles us: Nidhi Taparia and Ashutosh Parekh, a couple from Mumbai, are constantly searching for unconventional experiences for their seven-year-old daughter, Amodini. This year, while constructing Lego sets and telling stories about them, the small youngster learned to go beyond the instructions. The family enjoyed reading Julia Donaldson’s novels and discussing the different characters.
This made it easier for them to discuss even the most challenging topics. “My spouse and I have always disagreed on Barbie. This year, we found a solution when our friend Varunika Saraf, an artist, gave us Nilah—the wonderful doll. This doll, which was made by a craft project in the Nilgiris, was sustainable, steeped in Indian culture, and resembled us, according to Taparia.
Resolving divergent viewpoints: This year, author Vibha Batra had some fascinating discussions on the Harry Potter series with middle school students at litfests and workshops. How do you reconcile your appreciation for the author’s works and films with her nasty remarks on topics like trans rights?
Is it possible to like a series and disagree with the author at the same time? How can you reconcile with that?
Some relevant conversations have resulted from this, she notes. Additionally, there were talks about casting, particularly for the part of Hermione, for the Broadway production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which debuted this year. We discussed colorblind casting and diversity. Why should an actor’s race or color be a barrier? These were a few of the queries posed, according to Batra.
Social media as a place of solace: Anushka Ravishankar, the author of books like Moin and the Monster, recently spoke with students in grades 11 and 12 at a school’s literature festival. They argued that social media is what books were to previous generations. It felt like an odd analogy to her.
One young girl utilized social media as an escape from reality because she thought that the generational divide prevented them from having open conversations with their parents or professors. According to Ravishankar, social media seems to offer them the same comfort and stress release that books did for us. However, the young girls also seemed to be quite conscious of the risks associated with social media. They all recognized that cyberbullying was a significant problem, and one had personally experienced stalking. “In the end, we all agreed that we should all strive for some gadget-free time every day and that communication between parents, teachers, and children was vital,” she continues.
Expressing complicated feelings: Ayesha Chenoy had no idea that The Rose Bush would serve as the starting point for a number of intricate discussions. The conversations became more complex as the younger readers reacted to concepts of justice and separation, such as “Why is the garden divided?” and “Why can not children play together?” with the older kids. They started to see similarities with actual differences between groups, ideologies, and even families, and they began to wonder who constructs these barriers and why.
Recognizing privacy: Radhika Kapoor, a parent in Gurugram, found it difficult to navigate discussions about the Roblox game. It has been like walking a tightrope when it comes to discussing digital safety with her 13-year-old and assessing her activities to keep her safe but also honoring her individuality. “My daughter may come across stuff with explicit language, violent themes, or predatory chatrooms due to the platform’s user-generated games,” she says. I feel like my privacy is at jeopardy because strangers can message her without my knowledge and sensitive information can be stolen. In-game purchases entice her with virtual goods, which can result in unforeseen real-money fees. The mom and teen have had numerous significant and fruitful conversations about this subject over the past year.
There is nothing like familial warmth: No book or toy could compare to the happiness that comes from spending time with family, according to Jahnabee Borah, the newest mother on the Lounge team. She visited her great-grandmother in Assam this November, traveling from Mumbai with her six-month-old. She is 100 years older than my daughter. “That is extremely uncommon and valuable,” she says.
Making the most of this visit, her aunts and cousins entertained the child with Bihu songs and Assamese limericks. The Bihu jam session reached a peak one evening when my infant began to babble loudly, shake her small body to the beat, and move her hands up and down. We had an unforgettable experience when everyone else joined in,” Borah recounts.
A look back at history: At a recent literature festival in Kochi, author Lavanya Karthik spoke with kids and teenagers about her book, A Demon in Dandi. The Dandi March serves as the backdrop for the murder mystery novel, and naturally, the topic of swaraj and the rejection of everything British in favor of Swadeshi goods came up.
The protagonist of the tale is a little child who is devoted to a collection of Sherlock Holmes stories but finds it difficult to adhere to Gandhiji’s ideals. I asked the kids if it was possible to be a Gandhian and still have strong ties to British culture.
Almost everyone in the room raised their hands, and we heard a variety of fascinating reactions, ranging from outright disdain of the character and his fence-sitting to a forceful defense of British contributions to Indian culture, such as the railway system, cricket, and the English language, she says. Karthik witnessed some extremely well-reasoned arguments for and against a total boycott of foreign concepts and goods during the lively debate that ensued.
