FOMO: Parental Anxiety During Exams
I wake up to a flood of messages from school groups
👉 Has anyone marked East India Company locations?
👉 Who secured a two-digit rank in the Olympiad?
👉 What’s the answer to the Kagunita question?
👉 Is your child able to do revisions independently?
And when these messages aren’t in the group, they surface in cliques (two- three mommies and their little group to figure out how their kids are doing) or personal chats.
It feels like every parent takes on the mission of studying the textbook, filling in missed notes, and drilling (aathmanirbhartha) self-reliance into their child all within a month.
Everything else fades into the background—play, screen time, sleep, meals.
After this month, we are back to ‘I love my child and believe in giving lots of space’- parents.
The unspoken motto: Stay in the game. (Jame Raho anthem from Taare zameen par plays in most households)
In the midst of this frenzy, the easiest prank of the season is to throw a random question one that isn’t even in the syllabus and watch the panic unfold. Parents scramble, flipping through textbooks, terrified that their child has missed a class or forgotten an assignment. Then, after a few moments of collective anxiety, someone finally responds Oh, that’s a grade higher, from my elder one’s book, it was left here on younger one’s table I got confused! A wave of relief sweeps through the group, and blood pressure levels are adjusted. Because in exam season, all it takes is a single unexpected question to shake a parent’s equilibrium. (to all the non-parents laughing ek sawal ki keemat tum kya jano – you have no idea about the cost of one question 😊 )
The moment a parent casually mentions,
“My child did this in one go or I don’t need to guide them”, a hush falls. And then come the questions—
👉 Where do these kids come from?
👉 What do they eat?
👉 How do they stay motivated to learn?
👉 Is this genetic?
👉 What am I not doing right?
👉 Am I neglecting my child? Should I have started earlier?
Some voice these anxieties, some hold them in, some seek therapy (oh yes!). Meanwhile, stress mounts, emotions spiral, and FOMO consumes us, even though we are not entirely sure what we are afraid of missing.
And so, another exam season passes. I only pray that our children sail through emotionally unscathed and that we, as parents, get a grip on this relentless FOMO before it grips us further.
To parents struggling with FOMO during the exam season, its crippling, it is scary to perhaps relive your childhood, but you have the choice to walk past your childhood experiences.
What are your parental FOMOs, share here: Parental FOMO