Arduous lifestyle and environment of urban slums demand vigorous efforts from all the members living together to the extent that their lives become dedicated to solely one goal, that is ‘survival.’ The essence of the present study lies in unraveling the impact of the context in which families reside on the parental socialization behaviors and practices for enabling their child’s social development, owing to the location of urban slums of Mumbai. As a critical ethnographic study, the authors utilize the ‘spot observation’ technique along with unstructured interviews to understand the nuances of parental socialization practices and behaviors directed towards their child’s social development. The interpersonal dynamics emphasized shared living, gendered role distribution, education as apprenticeship, and learned financial helplessness. The critical theme that emerged through the study is diffused parenting and hypervigilance by the caregivers, having high worth for socially desirable behavior of the child. Use of operant, observational, and cognitive strategies for socializing children to display socially desirable behavior gained prominence. Early gendered apprenticeship for household chores directed to the girl child manifested presence. The present study calls attention to the need for interventions to empower self and parenting behaviors for families in urban slums.