Just Kidding

                As I was watching the movie “The Sound Of Music”, there is a scene where, ‘The Captain’, the hero introduces his children to the governess, ‘Maria’, the heroine. She was expecting the normal way of introduction, but to the contrary, the captain summons  his children with a  whistle  and the ensuing clamour and the fright that Maria gets , is so hilarious that for me it just stuck into my soul. Seeing the whistling part felt odd. But those who have had to rear kids, with or without mother would know the difficulty of bringing up kids, would find nothing odd in it.

                Seeing others children, we feel they are sooooooooooooo angelic and I was so happy, when I too had one. But as predicted they too were soooooooooooooooo angelic children until 4, from then till date I feel and like I have been transplanted in a hornets’ nest. And if you are a mother, then don’t bother to even think about maintaining the social code of conduct at home with kids. I really wanted to take care of children, give them all my love and care and happiness and etc.. and etc.. Now I feel like a she Amitabh  Bacchan. If he can fight with a leg and a hand I can do it all together and my anger, God I don’t know, how my mother and all the mothers of generations before managed. At least Capt. Von Trapp (Sound of Music) could summon his children with a whistle, mine won’t even respond to a trumpet, I feel. And I’m not planning to try it. Better ask me, why? Why humiliate my own self by making them disobedient. So I usually do ask them what I’m sure they’ll do. At least for now, they are obedient.

                I’d like to say a story about a man who had elephantiasis (big leg caused due to mosquito bites). He married and his mother said, ‘Son, control your anger and never use your leg to harm your wife’. So when he got angry with his wife he would raise his big leg. Seeing this mighty leg, the wife used to cower and obeys him immediately. But one day, he couldn’t control his anger, he kicked his wife and the wife felt like being kicked with a soft sponge. She then understood that there was nothing happening in the elephant leg and from then on, the son failed to bring his wife under control. So there are times I do the same, show the controlling weapon, a stare, a growl, anything, in that, all the meaning should be included.

                I remember making a resolution, that I wanted to control my kids with love and do you want to know what was the result? It was very sweeeeeet. They smothered me with more love with lots of laughter and simply pranking around and just playing and playing and playing. So now I understood the real meaning of the old proverb, “Spare the rod and spoil the child”. During my lifetime I have had my share of experiences with the rod and now I know that why I am sooooooooo nice or else I would have been in jail, for two lifers.

                Thank God, that He gave me the wisdom to follow the simple rule of “One eye is more than enough for rearing kids”. These kids are smarter than us when they are together, It happened to me once, when they had a fight between themselves and one of them came with a complaint to me. I with my sense of justice and equality, I asked each what the problem was and how it started, but when the time for my decision came the complainant just said, ‘Forget it Mom, I just wanted you to give a spanking to my brother, now its finished. Leave it’. Then I knew, just let the storm take its toll, the rest would calm in their own good time. That’s why the old say, “Let the children give and take their share of fight, only then they will learn how to survive in this competitive world”. They are wise aren’t they? Then who am I to change? The answer is I’m a mother of two, helping myself keep up to stand erect in the midst of the tornado.           

                Bye for now and see you tomorrow.

Meena