“Log kya kahenge” sounds like concern, but for children it often translates into surveillance. It teaches them that the family image matters more than emotional honesty. That appearances matter more than distress. That a child’s job is not to be understood, but to be managed.
The cost is high. Children may stop sharing problems with parents. They may hide friendships, interests, feelings, even mistakes. Some develop perfectionism. Some rebel later. Some simply carry guilt into adulthood, unsure who they are beneath all the expectations.
And yet, many parents are not acting out of cruelty. They are passing on a fear they inherited themselves, the fear of judgment, of exclusion, of being seen as less than respectable. In that way, “log kya kahenge” becomes a family inheritance.
