This is a sponsored post for Flipkart's #HowToShopForKids Campaign and was first published on MyCity4Kids.com
“You can find magic, wherever you look; Sit back and relax, all you need, is
a book!” says Dr. Seuss. And I couldn't agree more! Which is why, I am
constantly on the lookout to get the best books for my little one to
read.
A voracious reader myself, I have always wanted my child to
love books and enjoy reading. In fact, I introduced him to books when he was
just a few months old and I have always read to him and seen to it that I keep
a steady supply of books directed towards him at all times. You must be
thinking, what could give me, a book-lover, better joy than shopping for books,
right? Well, I thought so too, but soon, I found out otherwise.
They say shopping for children is no child’s play; I agree,
but I will let you in on a secret - shopping with children, is
clearly not for the faint-hearted either! And that is something I have learned
first-hand - visiting bookstores with my little one.
Well, initially when he was a baby, I planned my book
shopping smartly, by hitting the bookstores when my little one was asleep; so I
could fruitfully utilise his nap time. And it was great fun visiting bookstores
and scrounging the used book stores for classics and out-of-print books with my
baby napping sweetly!
But as he grew into an active toddler, I found myself
running after him around the stores more and more and scanning the shelves less
and less! Around the same time, I also started working from home and that’s
when shopping for necessities took priority over shopping for books; and
sometimes was even limited to just sending Dad off with a list. And when I did
visit the bookstores, I almost always ended up spending way more time and money
there than I could afford. But all said and done, it kept getting increasingly
difficult to actually take the time out to go shopping for books.
I still managed to get my own reading done since I was a
member of the local library (and honestly I had very little time to read
anyway); but when it came to my little one’s books, I had no choice but to
physically go shopping which was time consuming and difficult, to say the
least!
And that is when I turned to online shopping. I was
skeptical at first. There were too many questions – will it be secure, will the
quality of things I bought be good, what if I don’t like what I bought, what if
I wanted things to be exchanged – a lot of questions! But I decided to really
give it a try, and hey, online shopping is the ‘in thing’ right?
So I systematically checked the different e-commerce options
available to me. Most online portals offered a lot of variety and many of them
promised good service as well as great returns or exchange policies. Many of my
friends were already seasoned online shoppers and I took tips from them too.
Around that time, I came across this sweet video by
kids https://youtu.be/WXW0WWeJ4kQ which
is a comic take on the way we adults shop for children. And this made me see my
little one in new light, only to find that since he had started school, he had
become (somehow!) very opinionated. He now loved to have a say in things that
were bought for him. And although, I wasn’t pleased with this when it came to
say, clothing (I mean come on, he preferred track pants 24X7!); I was still
okay to let him be the judge of what he wanted to read.
In fact, I was rather happy to let him be the judge of his
reading choices. You see, I am a strong advocate of introducing children to
books at a young age and I also believe that unless we let children be the judge
of what they read, they will never be able to build their own taste in books!
So I almost always let my little one guide me as to what he preferred to read.
And with online shopping for books, this was really easy for
me to do. I mean, no kidding, my little one belongs to the present day
generation that spends way too much time on gadgets and smartphones anyway; and
I felt, he should rather spend time online searching for the right book to read
than playing the games that made no sense to me!
And that is when I came up with a new house rule – every
month, I would allow my little one to visit the online Flipkart bookstore
with me and choose the books that he found interesting and appealing; we would
then shortlist these books using their Shortlist option and he would be
rewarded with the books from this list when he did something excellent like say
got good grades, or did some chores to help around the house, things like that.
And let me tell you, this is working superbly!
I have found this site to be very easy to navigate, even for
my little one who loves to browse through their extensive collection of books!
We use the ‘add to wish list’ feature extensively and have a sizable list of
books that my little one has created to choose from when I am in the mood to
reward him for a job well-done!
In addition to helping with my son’s computer literacy,
shopping with Flipkart has also helped me get good books at great prices; as
they regularly come up with excellent discounts and offers! Not only that, I am
also assured of quality products, same day delivery and an excellent 24X7
customer service that is totally reliable and extremely helpful! Not to mention
the option of priority service and a hassle-free return policy
in case you are not completely satisfied with what you have ordered; which if
you ask me, is pretty rare anyway.
So, to cut a long story short, I have found the best way to
ensure that I am able to shop for books in the best way possible and believe me
when I tell you, I am building an amazing library with my little one that I am
really proud of! As a mother who is keen on raising a reader; and as someone
who is almost always running short on time, but knows the importance of buying
books for children; I would definitely urge you to try it too!
#HowToShopForKids
Comments
Post a Comment