Today the girls were very cranky. They slept off most of the day during odd times and weren't in a good mood at all during the waking hours. They kept insisting to be picked up, kept fighting with each other and were overall in a nasty mood. I guess they are still recovering from their week long illness and since the entire day yesterday was dedicated to playing with play-doh, they were in a sense recouping all the lost energy!!
It seemed very hard for me to give all my time and energy to them since we are leaving for our vacation to Chandigarh and then to Jim Corbett National Park tomorrow. The packing proceeded at a snail's pace and took the entire day!!! Wow I am suprised at how simple things can blow up into a day long activity when the kids don't co-operate and there are a million things to get done. After the children were born I have started to feel that 24 hours is just not enough in a day. Mothers need more time! Phew...
Ofcourse deciding what to take for each kid constituted majority of my packing time. Its so hard when you have to pack for hot and cold weather! A real challenge!!! I did lose my temper a few times but overall I think I did reasonably well when it came to temper and situation management. Of course my conduct in the face of such adversities needs vast improvement....
Chellu kept asking if we could HS !! I understand where that came from..last week's illness kept us away from serious HSing of any sort. we read books at the most and watched lots of movies and children's stuff. But nothing more than that. I know for sure that whenever she asks to be HSed she is asking for my one-on-one attention primarily and for some focussed activity. Neither of which happened since I too was sick as a dog!
Middle of the day kunju started whining to be picked up when I had finally started to pack. I got a little irritated with her whining and immediately said" If you continue to do this in the national park then the tigers will come and pick you away!" I literally did the action , picking her by her T-shirt. The moment I did this I realized my folly.Shit! How stupid of me..I am taking them for a vacation to a certain place and scaring the day-lights off them about that very same place!! They must be thinking that we are some sort of evil plotters!! And it never does any good to scare a child about anything..As parents we often resort to this craziness..I feel quite ashamed whenever I do this but end up repeating the mistake all the time, especially during days like today when I am terribly squeezed for time and the kids will simply not co-operate..
To quickly mend my mistake I then said.." But do you know what the tiger will do when he takes you away?"..The fear on the girls' face immediately turned into curiosity as if begging for more...I know I had hit the bull's eye !!
"It will take you away and make you its baby!!" And then??? they asked..."It will take care of you just like amma and appa , feed you,bathe you, put you to sleep." They started to smile. "But there is one problem " I continued..It will feed you only animals!!" Yuck they said !! Then we sat together and proceeded to discuss as what will happen if they get kidnapped by various other animals. Crocodile- will feed fish, Snake- will feed frogs & lizards, birds- will feed worms, giraffe-will feed leaves, deer-will feed grass and finally bear- Bear!- it will feed honey, nuts and wild flowers & fruits. Their eyes immediately lit up and Chellu claimed " Ha then the best thing would be for a bear to kidnap us !!!" Kunju seemed very excited too..she loves nuts!!
Such conversations always delight me. I treasure these moments. And this dialogue definitely helped in bridging the gap between us today. We all seemed to have struck a chord in the midst of all the " to dos..."
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