lilac_gecko_7835

0·25 Oct 2026·on reading earns screen time in our house. one kid has banked 6 hours, the other has zero

We had separate currencies. Each one earned screen time doing the thing she avoided, not the thing she liked. Worked till about 14. After that nothing worked 🤷

1·22 Oct 2026·on Work shadowing for a 16 year old, or another certificate course?

Get the refund terms in writing. my daughter's interests have shifted twice since april, a two-year package would have been a poor fit for her.

0·21 Oct 2026·on Work shadowing for a 16 year old, or another certificate course?

Good question. From what I see mentoring students, a sample is the right ask. What reads well is a small project the student clearly did herself, rough edges included. Packaged projects start to look alike 🤷

1·5 Oct 2026·on Class group chat runs past 11 and my son feels he must reply instantly

Our daughter's class had the same thing. What worked: she checks the group at 7 and at 9, answers what needs answering, and the rest of the time it's on silent. Took a few weeks for her friends to stop expecting instant replies. At 16 she now does it without being told. Mostly.

1·4 Oct 2026·on Son wants aerospace engineering at 14. We know the JEE route by heart and nothing about the job

I mentor a few engineering students. The most useful thing for a 14 year old is half an hour with someone 3 or 4 years into the job. Not a professor, and definitely not a coaching counsellor. Ask around your own circle, someone always knows someone at a design firm or an aircraft maintenance unit. Let your son prepare the questions himself, he will ask better ones than we would.

6·30 Sept 2026·on my younger daughter wants maths tuition. not because she's struggling, because her sister goes

agree with the same-slot idea. ours did a library hour at that age, mostly for the walk there and back 🤷

0·10 Sept 2026·on Grandparents expect her at every evening pooja, and half-yearlies start the same week

Being far from family means we don't have this problem, for better or worse 🤷 My daughter goes to the evening aarti at our society pandal, 20 mins, and comes back. Exams or not. That small thing seems to keep her happy.

1·29 Aug 2026·on Daughter loves biology but doesn't want to be a doctor. Is BiPC still the right group?

One thing to check: some junior colleges run BiPC as a NEET programme with long coaching hours built into the day. Ask the college what a BiPC student who isn't writing NEET does during those hours. If they have no answer, that's your answer.

0·17 Aug 2026·on Both grandmothers say no curd or banana for the baby while it's raining. Do you follow that?

We did the last one. Followed the rules whenever my mother-in-law was visiting, forgot them the day she left. Daughter is 15 now and nobody can tell which regime she grew up on.

6·13 Aug 2026·on Came back from a two-day trip to a fridge the boys had sorted by colour

Enjoy it. At 16 the welcome-home surprise is that she's awake and has eaten something 🤷

1·26 Jul 2026·on College started this week. Now I'm the one texting 'what time will you be back'

Give it a few years. Mine is 15 and already at 'nearby'. 'Later' is quite detailed by comparison.

0·3 Jul 2026·on Diary note says my class 3 son 'answers before the question is finished'

As someone who spends lectures begging students to say anything at all, I'd quietly take this problem. But yes, the waiting matters. What helped with my daughter was a rule at home: count to three in your head, then answer. She's 15 now and still does it before answering in viva practice.

2·19 Jun 2026·on Daughter chose a machine learning topic for her IB extended essay. That's my job.

I supervise postgraduate students, and the most useful thing a knowledgeable person can do is ask 'how do you know that?' and then stop talking. Once you rewrite a paragraph, neither of you can un-see it. The stopping is the hard part 🤷

1·26 May 2026·on Sibling of a current student, and still on the LKG waitlist in the last week of May

Ask to speak to the principal rather than the admissions desk. Sibling cases sometimes get another look once someone senior sees them. It worked for a friend in Noida. No promises.

0·12 May 2026·on Does the fifth subject in class 11 matter for CUET, or only for the school timetable?

Broadly right. Do check the specific universities she might apply to, though. Some programmes want particular class 12 subjects, and 'any subject' sometimes has small print. From the university side, as far as I've seen, the fifth subject rarely decides anything, but it can rule things out. Psychology is unlikely to be the one that does 🤷