a suggestion needed !!

Teaching a child to do this in the west ( Canada and the US) would be considered "sick!" I would probably never go near those people again. Their poor child might never grow out of an inferiority complex such as this would establish. That she kept doing it repeatedly, showed that she has been subjected to intensive training. Parents like these could be charged with child abuse in North America.

Neo_Matrix, perhaps they are over doing it. You must gently advise them against this overdose. You need to tell them gently if they are elders to you that this must be done with lot of discretion. I have been brought up in very orthodox Hindu traditions. But I do not remember, my parents asking me to prostrate before ALL elders. Only the deserving, like the most aged and knowledgeable in the family, or Gurus and Acharyas. Of course prostrating before God(the Idol or an assumed Universal Existence)is a part of the sound Hindu Religious training. In this respect I sort of like the Islamic concept of prostrating to none other than God.

Hi neo_matrix, I think it must be joint family and the child must be favourite of all people. I know when small kids learn good things the elderly people must be proud on them because they knew that the credit goes to the whole family or it is a symbol of their culture. The child is just enjoying the appreciation so he/she keep on doing the same. It is important to teach the moral values and everybody will love to listen the greetings from a small kid. At the same time it is not good to encourage the child to keep on doing the same, greeting once is enough. I agree with you, sometimes grandparents are pampering and spoiling their grandkids much. (I am not speaking about whole grandparents, but only small percentage is doing like it). Actually they are happy and proud on their grandkids.

Are you sure that she was being trained to do so or was she imitaing something that she had seen someone else do? Kids at that age are very likely to imitate others and when she received praise for doing so she continued with the action. If someone had simply told her ok now thats enough she probably would have stopped. But because the adults thought it cute no one took charge to stop the behavior.

This seems over the top, I thought at 3 years of age we should encourage children to be self confident and to explore the world, a little young for extreme humbling. But some cultures are very driven by religion so I guess it is a parents choice. I wonder how this will fly when the child enters pre-school or daycare. It is very difficult to give parenting advice when not asked for, parents tend to get very upset so I think you did the right thing

i feel for you I would not have felt comfortable either and what do you do? If you really felt the need to say something I would make sure to do it in private with just the mother and maybe tell her you would appreciate it if they didn't make their daughter great you that way it makes you feel uncomfortable. Otherwise I would not visit their house anymore and limit it to public visits which I hope they would not require this poor girl to do this in public.

I agree with you friend. I would also not have felt comfortable with the situations as you felt bad. I think her parents had to understand better instead of showing that she can do it or anything... it is good that they teach her good moral values but there is limit of everything and they should look for the comfort of kid as well not just showing that they have made her like this or that...