I am an introverted mom to an extroverted kid!!

The damm personalities again… Clash of the Titans again!! Only this time it’s my personality with that of my little monster.

To stand and make a light conversation can get my stress levels high. Well, as an introvert I hate talking in crowd. I can’t imagine befriending people on my own. I hate parties unless some bones of mine have been intoxicated and I am just a nervous wreck having to meet new or even known people especially if they are loud and boisterous.  Seriously, how do I manage one over-grown kid and one to be growing kid both over-excited and overtly restless?  But as an adult you can get away with lot of things that you want to avoid intentionally. But not as a mother to an over enthusiastic toddler. Having a quiet moment was my treasure that was suddenly snatched when my little munchkin suddenly became a monster to reckon with.

I am surrounded with moms who want to go to cafes and chill while their little ones are in school trying to decipher their A,B,C and Ds. So I duck and avoid - that’s the easy part. But how does one avoid the birthday parties? So, I drag myself with a bright smile only because my monster has to attend his friend’s birthday and give him his ‘gift’. So while he is busy with his gang I try to do small talks with my fellow mommies and surprise surprise the topic of discussion is ‘mom-in-law’ so I duck further and try to find my monster only to find his clothes messed up with some lovely chocolate cake with a wide grin on his face. 

I catch my moment of sanity by cleaning him but he is more than comfortable in the mess wanting to show off to his friends.  From when was a messy tee-shirt an in-thing?

I always knew my monster would be one hell of a determined guy but surely I realised the super market isn’t a place for that right now. So I put him in the trolley and we start our shopping with the list. But the adamant fellow wants to walk besides me pulling out his juices, milk cartons and chocolates by himself, pulling down half things along with it. And when I give him the murderous look he makes the sorriest face that I can’t help but smile. Without any options I make him sit on the trolley and I finally sigh a relief. But nonetheless the game isn’t over. “Excuse me everybody. Please move aside,” he shrills. The shoppers turn and smile giving my trolley a way to move.  Oh, how I wish the ground could swallow me right then rather than trying to push the trolley between the amused shoppers. And it doesn’t end. He doesn’t stop. He has to say thank you to each one of them. Why can’t he just sit and enjoy his cookies and chips, I wonder?

If cookies and chips don’t work, surely an ice-cream works when you want to sit in peace. But my monster thinks otherwise for sure. As a family outing we go grab a scoop. So my little fellow wants the pink colour ice cream. Just as I place the order I see he has disappeared. I spin my head and find him face-to-face with an adversary with a look that either of them challenging the other. So I jump in with a, “what happened,” and his adversary is quick to respond. It’s not pink colour ice-cream, its strawberry ice cream.  And how can the monster stay behind. So in a rather powerful force he says, “Its pink colour ice- cream not strawberry. So I Ms. Explanation tries to enlighten his rival, its strawberry but he does not know the name so for him its pink colour. The next thing my monster’s rival is categorically asked to mind himself and is dragged with a chocolate ice cream. My introverted eyes kept looking at my monster happily licking his pink ice cream not wanting to be dragged out but wanting to finish it there itself. How much I wished to disappear from the face of this earth. But alas, we go back with a big grin on his face. 

No more #nurseryrhymes... and #fairytales!!!

.... 'Georgie Porgie, pudding and pie, Kissed the girls and made them cry; When the boys came out to play, Georgie Porgie ran away'..... a sweet and funny rhyme as an adult. But as a mother to a toddler I was amused and then surprised and lastly shocked when I deciphered the meaning of this rhyme. Why would I want him to learn something about a boy that make girls cry and just because some boys came to play why the hell did this dude run away. Absurd!!!

So then I went to a simpler one which we all know is funny for an adult. 'Johnny Johnny yes Papa, eating sugar no papa. Telling a lie, no papa... open your mouth, hahaha.' So what did papa do? Well, for starters if my kid would do something like this his father would surely give him a tight on his right cheek. And as parents don't we keep pushing the values down our children's throat? Then why would I try to teach him a rhyme that goes totally against the taught values. So my motherly instincts just switched from nursery rhymes to story books before the little volcano would erupt next to me.

So my little toddler hands me a story book and tells me to "Read this story." Jack and the bean stock- vow that's cool I muttered. And so the story goes how Jack stole the gold coins, the harp and the golden hen from right under the giant's nose. Jack gets inside the castle because a mysterious bean tree had grown overnight outside his window from the seeds that he took in exchange of his cow. I mean, firstly the dud exchanges the cow for some bean seeds that he was to sell in the market and then he climbs the tree sneaks into the giant's castle and he has the audacity to cut the tree with an axe which is given by his mom and they actually live happily ever after. I mean seriously talk about having a nerve.

So I asked my toddler, so what did he understand. And he excitedly narrated that there was a big bean tree and the castle where the giant lived and the hen that gave eggs. And I sighed!

So, I flipped for another story that would be 'nice' for him. And I came across a story with a twist. Goldilocks and the three bears. Now what could you seriously find any hidden perceptions amongst three bears. But alas, surprise surprise I was so wrong. So as the story goes Goldilocks is a young girl who was roaming in the woods and gets lost and then enters a cottage. She sees three bowls of porridge and she empties one of them. Tries to sit on a chair and breaks it and finally climbs on the bed and goes off to sleep. Now haven't we always told our children do not enter any unknown places. Do not eat anything of which you have no knowledge and when the bears come back to their cottage and find the broken chair, empty porridge bowl they are bewilded of course and when they see Goldilocks sleeping, they get frightened and eventually frighten her and she runs away from the cottage never to go back again. Wow, am sure the bears would be happy to have Goldilocks off their backs. 

Enough of deciphering words and sentences and story lines. I finally closed the story book... switched on the visual medium and yipee we have "Avengers-age of Ultron."  To hell with screen time and excess two hours of movies and its magic!!!

....Just one more day....just some more hours!! #love #time

When a child is born she first snuggles in her parents arms. The tender and gentle love of her parents showered on her during her toothless days is her safe abode. They nurture her, feed her, and understand her slightest woe without her saying a word.  Slowly, she grows up into a fine lady and now she walks by herself. Each step is a culmination of her parent’s values and her own life experiences. She remembers her parents say, “Each step you take should be paved through hard work and honesty.” She is an individual now and takes her own decisions in life. She keeps moving, tolling and struggling. She goes to the extent that she forgets that she is also someone’s child.

And then one day she looks at her father. Once her hero, now old who is in no condition to run after her, to feed her or play with her. Yet his heart goes out for that young child who now has a mind of her own as he knows that after a day’s work she must be hungry. His physical strength might have reduced not his love. And when the lady looks at her father she feels that in the bargain to achieve fame and success she had forgotten her family. She tries to extend her hand, share her feelings but nevertheless.....

Her lifeline, her hero, her father has moved on to a life filled with bliss. As for the girl she is alone to fight the world once again. The world seems an illusion. She asks God for just one more day when she could just sit and talk to her father, she could tell him how much she cared and loved him. One last chance but that chance is eluded.

In the bargain of life and death she is deprived of those few hours. She whines and cries to numb the pain and the hurt to heal but she knows nothing would ever help again. And then comes the realisation.

She reminisces when her father taught her the values that she stands for today. She remembers his scolding and love. She realises that even in the discipline was love hidden. And even in death he made her realise that love is all.

Time gone is last forever. Every day we awake and move in the fast paced world not to be left behind. We pick pace with competition and struggle because we cannot compete destiny. We talk about goals and dreams that include our loved ones. But with whom would we share them if our near and dear ones are not there to share our life. Time is the most precious element. And time never returns. We know this eternal truth but how many of us understand it. We take it for granted that our loved ones are going to be with us. We do not want to face it that there would be day and time when they would leave us. And when they leave us we ask for those few hours with them. But we forget that we were flourished with time which we never respected. It is to teach us a lesson that we must start valuing our relationships no matter how stray they might have gone. Life is too short to hold grudges and indeed too small to struggle for petty things and forget the love.

Tell your parents that you love them. Tell them you care because nothing lasts forever. Not time, not people… what is there is now… don’t miss it…. You might never get a second chance.