Gurugram CEO's hard-hitting take on 'pressure cooker' parenting in India goes viral

A sharp critique of Indian parenting by the CEO of a Gurugram-based startup has triggered a debate on social media, with many users saying it mirrored their own personal experiences.

Jasveer Singh, co-founder and CEO of Knot Dating, shared a lengthy post on X where he described what he called “pressure cooker parenting” in India. This model, Singh said, is flawed not because parents intend harm, but because it prioritises outcomes over individuals.

“Most Indian parents didn’t raise children. They raised outcomes,” Singh said, arguing that children are often treated as owned assets rather than independent humans. He said parents frequently decide what their children study, the careers they pursue, and even whom they marry, while mental health, curiosity, aptitude and personal interest are sidelined.

Singh claimed that many parents project their unfulfilled ambitions onto their children, turning them into “projects” or “second chances”.

“Failure in India is treated like a crime! If a child fails an exam, the reaction is not concern - It is shame, and the child is scolded. Parents worry less about the child’s well-being and more about how they will answer ‘society and relatives’,” he said.

Singh also criticised the lack of space for questioning within Indian households - children who question authority are labelled disrespectful, while silence is mistaken for good values or sanskaar. Over time, this creates emotionally trapped adults who associate disagreement with guilt and questioning with betrayal, he argued.

Zooming out to society at large, Singh linked this parenting style to a broader cultural issue. “A society where questioning inside the home is punished will never produce questioning thinkers outside it,” he said, suggesting that fear of challenging authority begins at home and carries into public life.

He also flagged the toxic comparison culture and societal pressure, saying many parents are more worried about relatives’ opinions than their children’s individuality. “They can’t fight society, so they dominate their children,” Singh said, attributing this pattern to generations of obedience and patriarchy.

“This is not parenting - this is outsourcing personal failure onto the next generation,” he concluded.

Take a look at the post here:

The comments section of the post was flooded with thoughts and opinions on parenting shared by social media users.

“I love this post! I’m sharing it - it’s brilliant. And so true,” one user wrote. Another commented, “Every line feels personal. You just described half of middle-class India in one post.”

Some users, however, urged a more nuanced view. “This requires more thought than just this biased view and some points on how India is changing as well,” one person said, adding that there may be no single successful parenting model anywhere in the world.

“This hit hard, as a parent, and makes me want to look in the mirror,” a user said, adding: “We need courage to help our children become the best versions of themselves and to be parents they can always turn to.”

A long-standing conversation around parenting, societal pressure and mental health in India, has thus reopened as Jasveer Singh’s hard-hitting post went viral with 181.8k views on X.