Raising Capable Children by Sakshi Varma – Talk with Author

The book Raising Capable Children by Sakshi Varma is full of easy to implement tips on how to raise secure and independent children.

About the Author

Sakshi Varma is a full-time development finance professional, wife to a design entrepreneur, and mom to three lovely boys. Between her work, travel and managing 3 boys, she loves to take time out for her newfound passion for blogging.

About the Book

Raising Capable Children is Sakshi’s thoughts on parenting and bringing up kids that are independent, self-reliant, and capable.

The book is a guide for parents of kids of all ages and gives easy to follow tips on raising children that are capable and confident of finding their way in the world.

It is peppered with the author’s own life experiences and frustrations of parenting.

Details of the book Raising Capable Children by Sakshi Varma

Book Details
Title	Raising Capable Children
Subtitle	Handy tips to cultivate right values, attitudes and skills
Author	Sakshi Varma
Genre	Parenting
No. of pages	126
Format	Paperback
Available at	Amazon

Talk with Sakshi Varma, Author of Raising Capable Children

Welcome, Sakshi, tell us something about you. Starting with who are you as a person?

That’s a big question! I guess I am a lot of things—sincere, conscientious, a bit too earnest is one facet of my personality and an impossible dreamer who wants to do many-many things is another.

I want to do so many things that I feel one life may be a little less! I am happy being a jack of all trades and master of none. Master of one would be such a boring thing to be when there is so much one can do!

I am also a people’s person—probably not an extrovert, but I love interacting with as many people as possible from different facets of life. My blog has helped me reach out to many people and I am very grateful for that.

Tell us about your personality, beliefs, & values.

I am somewhere between an extrovert and an introvert. I love meeting new people, making friends and talking, but in groups, I tend to be shy. I find it easier to connect with people on a one on one basis. That’s also one reason why I have really enjoyed blogging—I am able to reach a lot of people, and then they connect personally with me through comments or mails.

I like to call myself quietly ambitious. I want to do a lot and achieve many milestones, but I don’t come across as someone aggressively moving towards a target. I think, I plan, and I execute.

I think I take life very seriously and I worry that makes me a boring person 🙂

How can your target audience relate to you?

My book is on parenting, and what I share are some of the core values and attitudes that I try to instill in my own children.

I suppose people will identify with my thoughts as a parent. We are all operating in a complex world, where our children have many more external influences than we ever had as children.

Most parents like me wonder how to ensure our children get the right values, attitudes, and skills; how to use the limited time we have with our children, in a qualitative way, in a way we can understand them better and give them the right guidance.

Sakshi, why do you think that people should read your book ‘Raising Capable Children?’

I have kept the book as a ‘simple to read and follow’ guidebook. The book need not be read in one go. The reader is free to pick choose an issue that they may be facing on a particular day.

Say for instance you found that your child is being teased by her classmates and you want to know how to teach her to stand up for herself, just flip the pages to chapters on bravery and courage of conviction and you may get some ideas that you can follow.

Or, perhaps your child is discouraged by failure, look up the chapter on perseverance and excellence, and you will get some handy tips on how to encourage your child.

How did you get the idea of writing this book? Why did you choose this particular theme?

I chose a theme close to my heart—about raising capable children. I am heavily influenced by the way our parents raised my sister and me.

At that time, I would see how so many of our friends were pushed or pressurized into doing things or taking decisions that their parents wanted them to. At the same time, I saw how many of them kept secrets from their parents.

My sister and I, on the other hand, had a very open relationship with our parents, and we enjoyed a lot of freedom. And, perhaps as a result of that freedom, we never really hid anything from them, and neither did we do anything that made them unhappy. We both turned out to be independent and confident young women.

I believe that parenting should be child-led, where the parents’ role is to guide them and shape them.

It pains me to see parents pressuring their kids to become something that they want and not what the kids want to become. The movie 3 Idiots captures it so beautifully.

So, in my book, I have tried to share simple tips on becoming the parents who focus on giving the right values, attitudes, and skills to their children and then let them be free to choose a life of their liking.

What difficulties did you face during writing this book, and how did you overcome them? Would you like to share any interesting thing that happened while writing the book ‘Raising Capable Children?’

This book was written during the first phase of intense lockdown due to COVID-19. At that time, there were 9 people in our house—3 senior citizens, 3 adults, and 3 kids. You can imagine what a madhouse it would have been. By the day, I was doing my office work and household chores, and at night starting 11 p.m. I was writing my blogposts that eventually became the book!

It was a crazy time, and I only got through it thanks to my mum and mother-in-law and my kids’ nanny!

But, otherwise, it was fun writing, with everyone in the family discussing each topic and providing their thoughts.

Tells us about your writing journey.

Frankly, I never thought I would be writing one day. My mother always wanted me to write—ever since my school days, but somehow, I never really felt this was my thing though I actually have a family full of writers, starting from my grandparents. I kept myself limited to writing reports as part of my professional life.

While I was busy with my work, travel, and bringing up my firstborn, in December 2016, I gave birth to my twin boys—premature by 8 weeks. It was a tough life then. The babies were tiny and needed all the care we could give. Despite the stress, we were all full of joy.

Six months later, we discovered that one of the twins had suffered brain damage, and our world came crashing down around us. All I remember of those days is dark despair, prayers that my baby would become okay, endless visits to doctors and therapy centers, and a lot of online searches.

I read and I read and I read. I read everything available about his condition, possible therapies & treatments, and about the best doctors available. But, what I looked for the most was the experiences of parents going through a similar situation. And, I did find a lot of stories and blogs, but hardly any from Indian parents.

In my grief, I decided to share our story, our struggles of bringing up a special needs child. In January 2018, my blog was born. Once I started writing, I realized I had a lot to share—not only about our special needs parenting journey but much more.

That is how I got hooked to writing and encouraged by people’s appreciation, I continued to write. The blogging journey has not been easy, along with handling a full-time job that requires a lot of traveling and 3 young kids. But, somehow I managed.

And, here I am today, having converted my blogposts into a book. I hope it will find the right readers 😊

What is the USP of your book?

There are many books on parenting, but ‘Raising Capable Children’ gives easy to follow, handy tips to instill and cultivate the right value system in our children, and parent of any child from 3-18years would benefit by reading it.

Other than parenting, what else do you like to write about?

I started my blog with the objective of writing about our special needs son and parenting him. There is a lot of awkwardness and a lack of awareness around disability. Many parents of special needs children feel socially excluded.

Hence, I write about disability and inclusion with the aim to reach out to similar parents as well as to raise some awareness and empathy around disability in the larger audience.

I also like to write about women—I have started a series called #inspiringwomen where I pick up stories about women who have dealt with difficult circumstances that life threw at them and are handling them in the best way the can.

I believe there are many such women around us, and we don’t always need to look up to the women CEOs or politicians. We just need to look around, and we can find a lot of inspiration.

Plus, I like to write about any issue that may have touched me in one way or the other.

Some Quotes from the Book

• Each child is different, and our parenting styles should match their personality and nurture their individuality.
• Do not try to mold your child into the person you want him to be—rather help him become who he is.
• As a parent, you must allow your child to refuse. Let them explain why they are saying no and then respect that.
• I believe perseverance is the single most important factor in determining one’s success in life. Talent, intelligence, knowledge—all of these will go waste if one doesn’t persevere.
• Let’s remember that life is a journey and not the destination.

Do read Sakshi’s book and share your views with her on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.