The Curse of the Bored Child

A bored child is a mother's worst nightmare. It's even worse than a child who is throwing a tantrum because at least a tantrum is directed at getting something or a result of something being denied.

A child who is bored is a dangerous element in nature and in his mother's life.

A child experiencing ennui will look at things differently and objects and ideas hitherto not in his scope of thinking will suddenly appear to him and make him do things that become the bane of his mother's existence and also put him in some amount of danger.

Take my very own bored child for example: He walks around half naked most of these because of the heat and suddenly took it upon himself to lash out at everything with his grandfather's belt. He liked the swoosh of the belt as it cut through the air and when I found him he was perilously close to whipping himself on his bare back with a belt that was being thrown about with a lot of energy and speed.

A bored child will also drape themselves over their mother in a manner that prohibits that poor woman from doing anything. I mean anything. A loo break becomes manna from the gods. A quick shower becomes a forbidden luxury. One that is disrupted every 2 minutes by a whine or a pounding on the door to give miscellaneous objects since the little emperor wants to be entertained.
All the while the bemused mother's busy trying to make sure the soap doesn't get into her eyes and hurrying so much that she almost ends up moisturizing with the conditioner in her haste.

When I see my son in these phases I am alarmed since I have NO CLUE how to keep him entertained. I think of cool, open meadows where he can gallop around like an unbridled horse or leap out of the ocean like a dolphin (make that a Great White with jaws agape after a hapless seal).

And I often feel sorry for myself because I sure as hell did NOT know WHAT I was getting myself into the day this chap was born.

It must be tough being a child, wanting to do so many things and yet having so many restrictions that the adults impose on the immediate environment; especially those which are inexplicable in a child's reckoning.

On the other hand, his demeanor and intensity makes me think he can make it big as a cage fighter. 
Maybe once he's in the cage I can finally put my feet up and read a book or sip an unhurried cuppa tea.

A mother can always dream.

The Little Joys Of Life...

During the end of 2012, when the nation was caught in the uproar and upheaval of the December 16th incident there was a little boy who brightened the cold and somber days.

He'd eat jam biscuits, chocolate Oreos and become a messy face and leave little sticky pug marks everywhere but be giggling like a loon and run all day long a bit like a gale.

He gave spontaneous hugs and kisses. Gave high fives when he did something he was happy with and just brightened up every part of the world he was in.

His mother did notice at the time. She was busy with other things and didn't particularly want crumbs, stickiness to be a part of her winter break. But today when he slept she realized exactly how much he adds to the fun factor of her life; even though she spanks him oftener than she would like to.

The best things in life are free...the wind beneath you while you soar higher and higher on a swing and the trust you put in your father who stands behind you to keep pushing you higher into the sky (or so it may seem to a child) and still makes sure you don't fall off your perch...too often.
Here are some facets of this little man full of mirth and unadulterated joy while playing in the park and basically being HIM.

Ol' MacDonald Had A What??!

Kids usually like animals. Love them even. They tend to like some over the others. As do we all. And then they also tend to juxtapose their likes onto each other and end up create a new landscape which can often rival Lewis Carroll's Wonderland.

 Now my son hasn't come up with a new Jabberwocky but he's decided that Ol' MacDonald needed to breathe some new life into his decades old farm because horses and pigs just weren't cutting it any more. So he added some tigers, lions (apparently both these majestic beings sit up like a Buddha, make tiny little paws and say "AAARRHH".
 Then came the zebras, the monekys, snakes, giraffes, elephants, yaks, fishes and transformed a once rustic farm into the San Diego Zoo.

 Ok. Zoo in place. Now what? Now we need to holler at everyone that we have a farm (read zoo) and let them know how our animals sound. By the way, I forgot we have camels too!
Well, we got the tigers' and lions' growls down pat but what do we do about the giraffes and zebras who are notorious for keeping their mouths shut and not wreck the peace like the rowdy lions? Well combining snorts,smacks and other odd sounds we come up with a cacophony that satisfies even the toughest customer aka tots who don't watch Animal Planet!
 And now that the sound check is complete and the farm is a grade A jungle any self respecting person would think twice about going into, 
the master of this creation announces he'd rather watch Chhota Bheem! Well...I guess we'll just leave the tigers and the moos to play nice till next time :-)

Ahoy Dholakpur!!