In the world of nuclear families, parenting books and magazines are handholding young couples
In 1946, a book titled The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care hit the stands and went on to become one of the biggest best-sellers ever. Its author, American paediatrician Dr Benjamin McLane Spock, had come with a reassuring message for parents: “You know more than you think you do.” Over 60 years later, Spock’s theory that parents need to rely on their instinct, common sense and their basic understanding of their child’s nature still holds strong. And his books on parenting remain among the most popular even 12 years after his death from cancer at the age of 94.
Now the question is: If parenting is about instinct, why is it that books (like Spock’s) and magazines on parenting continue to find a sizeable number of takers? While it’s difficult to zero in on an authentic figure that can show how the parenting books market has grown over the years, booksellers and publishers vouch for the segment. “With the emergence of the nuclear family, young parents no longer have grandmothers and aunts to turn to for advice on bringing up the baby. Parenting books, magazines and the Internet fill that gap,” says Bharat Kapur, the publisher of Parenting, the only homegrown parenting magazine which has been around for 18 years now. The magazine, which deals with issues right from the thought of conception to the time the child is 18, sells 1.11 lakh copies a month and sees an 89 per cent renewal of subscription. “We’ve found that the lack of confidence to be themselves is a core issue that bothers parents the most,” says Kapur, reinforcing the point Benjamin made over six decades ago. The Parenting magazine now has as many as nine to 13 Q&A sections to deal with different issues — right from pregnancy to the physiological health of young adults.
Sunalini Mathew, editor, Child magazine, says parenting has never been about instinct alone. “People have always been referring to books, but most of these are foreign publications and don’t always help in the Indian context,” she says. Vatsala Kaul Banerjee, former editor, Child, agrees. “Most books by foreign authors deal with parenting issues till the time the child is four, but they don’t always apply in an Indian situation. While some issues are universal, there are others which are culturally different,” says Banerjee who is now the editorial director, children's and reference books, Hachette India. But with magazines like Child, Parenting and Mother & Baby — there are only three parenting monthly magazines in India so far — parents now have access to updated information, international research and expert advice. “Child, which turns three in April 2011 and has a circulation of one lakh per month, gets a lot of queries related to behavioural issues,” says Mathew.
But the one segment that’s yet to gain momentum is parenting books by Indian authors. “Books by Benjamin Spock and the ‘What To Expect’ series by Heidi Murkoff & Sharon Mazel sell the most from our parenting section,” says Amit Francis, sales executive at Kolkata’s Oxford Bookstore. Vinod Kumar, manager of Teksons Bookshop in Delhi, who at times sells over 75 parenting books in a month, adds, “While authors like Nutan Pandit (Pregnancy: The Complete Childbirth Book) and Subhash C Arya (Infant and Child Care) have a readership that not many other Indian writers can rival.” None, at least, who can hold a candle to Stock.
