'Parenting comes with a manual': A new UAE support group is helping parents find their way

Khaleej Times

25-07-2025

At 36, Kavita Srinivasan had it all. The title. The dream job. The baby she had long yearned for. As editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan Middle East, she was one of the most visible South Asian media figures in the region. Her life, like many others in the glossy world she inhabited, may have seemed like a picture-perfect blend of work, life, and motherhood. But beneath the surface, something else was unravelling. Something it took her years to fully understand.
'I couldn't breathe,' she says now. 'I went into the darkest, deepest depression. I couldn't be alone with my son. I'd shake. Panic attacks. And I didn't understand what was wrong with me.'
Motherhood had been Kavita's dream for as long as she could remember. 'I was that girl who loved babies. I used to change random people's diapers. Everyone knew that about me,' she laughs, recalling how friends once gifted her Ann Geddes baby-themed stationery as a joke.
But nothing prepared her for the version of motherhood that came with postpartum depression so severe it bled into the years that followed. Nothing prepared her for waking up to breastfeed, heading to the office to run a global magazine, returning home to care for her baby — and somehow still feeling like she wasn't able to do justice at both. 'I had help. But I was a wreck,' Kavita admits. 'I was working until 1am. I went back to work before my maternity leave ended because I thought that's what I wanted. But even work started feeling empty. I remember thinking, 'Who am I? This isn't for my soul anymore.''
The break didn't come all at once. Kavita continued to lead the magazine for three more years. On the outside, everything was thriving. Revenue had spiked considerable amounts. But inside, the conflict between her two identities only deepened — until she turned 40. 'You can't deny your truth anymore at 40. You will break. And I did,' she says. That breakdown, as it turned out, would become her breakthrough.
During an interview with renowned psychologist Dr Shefali Tsabary, Kavita shared her struggle and Dr Shefali offered one simple line in response: 'You can't give what you didn't get'. 'And that just cracked me open,' Kavita recalls. 'I grew up with a mentally unwell mother. I took care of her all my life. I never realised how much that shaped me until I became a mother myself.'
Kavita quit her job shortly after. During Covid, she did what she describes as 'nothing' — at least in the traditional sense. But internally, she was undergoing one of the most intense transformations of her life. For someone whose identity had been anchored to career success, especially in the high-octane world of media, this period of stillness was both terrifying and healing. 'I found the right therapist. I broke down. I relived my entire childhood, but with presence. That's what healing is. Feeling your pain with presence, not escaping it.'
In this stillness, her real work began. Kavita enrolled in a holistic psychology programme at the California Institute of Integral Studies — ironically, one that was founded by the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, where her husband's family had deep roots. 'I hadn't told anyone I was applying,' she says. 'But it felt like a full-circle moment.'
She also trained under Dr Shefali, eventually becoming a certified parenting coach. But even then, Kavita didn't rush to build a brand out of her new learnings. She continued her studies, spent time with her son, and let her identity shift gently. 'When you work in the media, especially as a woman, your worth becomes tied to how visible you are. But I didn't want to perform anymore. I didn't want to chase metrics. I just wanted to be true to myself.'
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That truth eventually took shape as an initiative she now finds a great sense of purpose in. Raising Hearts, launched a few months ago, is a UAE-wide community for parents that now brings together over 350 members. And it started with just one honest post. 'I told people I was starting something. That I didn't have all the answers, but I wanted to offer support. And it grew, slowly but organically.'
The name, she says, came to her intuitively. 'We're hearts before we're minds,' she says. 'The first thing you hear in the womb is the heartbeat. So, 'Raising Hearts' felt right.' However, Kavita didn't want it to become just another series of well-spoken panels or influencer-friendly events.
'Raising Hearts' is about what she calls 'real, tactile, actionable support'. From segmenting sub-groups — single parents, fathers, screen-time concerns, co-parenting challenges — to offering free weekly workshops and planning hyper-local 'support pods', Kavita's goal is clear: no one should feel alone. 'You get workshops, guidance, therapy support, and a real community. People to call when you're overwhelmed. Someone to take your child for two hours when you're about to break.'
But at the heart of this community isn't just parenting support. It's also, in many ways, about re-parenting. 'I do a lot of inner child work,' Kavita explains. 'Most people come to me thinking they need
help with their child. But it's never really about the child. It's about the parent. The child is just the mirror.'
Her work spans everything from pre-conception and guiding parents through pregnancy, to supporting those navigating grief — even holding space for adults still processing the trauma of a childhood marked by emotional neglect or abuse. 'Everything goes back to the first seven years,' she says. 'If a child is struggling with anxiety or tantrums or even pulling their own hair, it's a signal. Not of bad behaviour, but of emotional overwhelm. And we don't try to 'fix' the behaviour. We support healing.'
Today, her vision for 'Raising Hearts' includes small, neighbourhood-based pods for real-life support, accessible education, and peer accountability. 'People say parenting doesn't come with a manual. I say it does. Parenting does come with a manual, we've just never been handed it.'
Through her upcoming course on emotional training before having a child, Kavita hopes to bridge that gap. 'The biggest gift this generation has is awareness,' she says. 'We can question whether we even want to be parents. We can pause. We can learn. And we must.' Because in Kavita's world, parenting isn't just a new role you take on, it's a mirror. A lifelong journey, whose manual we begin to write by first doing the inner work ourselves. Long before we raise the child, we must learn to raise ourselves.