Skip to main content

'Split Atom' Mom

Two children. Two different styles. My older one always does things fast and my younger one always slow. What should i do?

Take my older one, for e.g. You give her 10 things to do and tell her, "Slow down....take a deep breath. Don't hurry. Take your time." But, does she listen? No. She'll finish them all in 10 minutes and ask me, "Then, what should i do?". Now it's time for me to slow down and take a deep breath. Hand me some aspirin, will ya?

My younger one is exactly the opposite. If you give her 3 things to do and come back an hour later, she'll look at you and go, "What? You mean i am supposed to them now? You didn't tell me." And a couple of hours later, we'll be still on our first task. Snails and turtles can beat us anyday. While you're there, hand me the whole aspirin box, will ya? Thanks.

So, what do i do? Split like an atom, is what i've been reduced to. One part of me chanting a mantra - slow, relax, calm down, don't hurry, and the other screaming - fast, hurry it up, we're getting late. I feel like a movie on slow motion and fast forward mode at the same time.

Arrggh...the challenges of motherhood.....
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Human Needs and Relationships....Part 1

Let's admit it. All of us as adult humans have needs, wants and desires. At first, they have and will be at a basic sustenance level of food, shelter and clothing, and once that's done, it moves to many different elevations above. Also, it always starts with material things like money, car, house, job etc., then kids (and the heavy price tag that comes with them) etc. Think of it as the " taking " phase. At some point of life, when many hairs have been "grayed-and-dyed" after, we hopefully evolve to higher-order thinking like social work, helping/caring for others or spiritual quest etc. - basically, chucking the hugely inflated and egoistic "me and only me" out and replacing it with a big picture view of "what i can do for others", "how i can be useful to Mother Earth"  line of thought process. This would be the " giving " or " pay-back " phase. Sorry, life doesn't offer any free lunch, anytime, an...
Read more

Obey the IST rule, or else....

If you are an Indian living abroad, you must have heard this imaginary time zone, that we're all supposedly living in. If you are a newbie, read on. IST i.e Indian Standard Time is to arrive atleast 2 hours behind any given, scheduled time. You'll be unceremoniously banished from the 'desi' club and lose your badge of honor, even if you go a minute earlier. I have no idea who's the brain behind this acronym. But, my wild guess is that, it belongs to a body full of lazy bones - all 206 of them. Indian parties, especially, follow this IST rule to the core. Everyone will be late. You have to. Unless you wish to see your host in his pajamas or the hostess sans makeup. Looking at you with embarassment. You look quite puzzled and politely point out that the party time has been printed as 1.00pm. Lo presto, your watch shows exactly 1.00pm. And, they would go, "So what? You dumbo. Nitwit. That doesn't mean you should come exactly at that time. You did the same for ...
Read more

Life behind the Veil...

I just finished reading a fascinating book -'The Kite Runner' by Khaled Hosseini . In the book, when the author talks about Afghanisthan and the cruelty of the Taliban, it reminded me of our short stay in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. 15 years ago. A bad dream, but worth penning about. At the outset, Riyadh appeared to be a beautiful garden city, with well-maintained roads, glamorous malls and people literally rolling in money everywhere. All this wealth in exchange for one birthright - your freedom. That's the skeleton that was taking rap lessons in the closet. Yes, I'm talking about the terrible human, especially womens' rights that would go on in a country that's stinking rich with its oil money. Being the capital city, Riyadh was trying to implement the Shariat Law to the maximum at that time. Hope things are better now. Saudi women had to wear a full burkha covering their faces and we, the foreign women had to wear an 'abhaya' or a veil that could show o...
Read more