Today I was telling my son not to eat too much chocolate pudding. “It will give you a tummy upset.” I said. To which he replied, “Why Mama? My tummy doesn’t have feelings!”
I don’t have to look too far for inspiration. Nadir is the smartest, funniest, most creative little 5 year old I know. He inspires me to be smart and creative too. After all I do have to stay one step ahead of him!
https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/inspiration/
I suppose it’s very natural that when a couple has been blessed with at least one son and and one daughter, they find it their divine right to advise me to have another child and fast.
“Your son needs a sister!”
“Aren’t you planning to have another child?”
“Isn’t the gap quite big already, you need to plan your next child!”
This apparently is not a cultural phenomena but a universal one and as an expat living in the Middle East I get the same advice from everyone whether they are from Venezuela or from Pakistan.
Of course I must be absolutely miserable that I haven’t been able to produce another offspring in the last 5 and a half years. I must miss terribly keeping awake at night, changing pampers, potty training and toddler tantrums. What’s not to miss about having your hands in baby poo in the middle of the night? Or trying to shop for groceries with a screaming toddler in tow.
Yes, how unhappy I must be now that I have time for myself to pursue creative and healthy avenues like learning the piano or how to play tennis. That my son has lots of friends to play with and I keep him entertained and busy all the time.
Dear Family of Four/Five, Yes it would have been lovely if my son could have had a sister but it didn’t happen and I’m sorry if I don’t want to make myself miserable about it. In fact I am very happy with my situation. My little boy is perfect and smart and handsome and I’m truly blessed to have him. And no I don’t want do IUF/IVF or whatever else is out there as there was no reason for me not to get pregnant without it. So if God decided that I should have only one child, who am I to argue against that?
So next time you want to comment on why I have only one child, DON’T!
We’re a family of three, live with it!
You know how when you look into the mirror you see your physical appearance stare back at you, in much the same way when you look at your children, a lot of your own habits and personality traits are reflected in them. And some of those habits you didn’t even know you had or at least didn’t want to admit they were there.
I never realized that I exaggerate a lot. I often use the expression “hundreds of xyz..” when xyz can easily be counted on one hand. I also like to make sweeping statements. “I’ll never do ____ again!” and there I am doing it the very next day. It’s only when I started hearing my son say and do the same that I realized that he was doing exactly what I do.
It’s also a little scary watching my child grow into a mini-me. Maybe I have hundreds of wrong habits that he might adopt and can never ever get rid of… Maybe he.. Wait, what? I’m doing it again aren’t I?. Just getting carried away.
This is also the reason why people want to give up bad habits when they become parents. They don’t want their children to follow suit. Some personality traits are hard to get rid of and are not really harmful whereas other habits like smoking should definitely be stopped when you have children. The only time my husband quit smoking in our 11 years of marriage is when my son was born. Although he took it up again after a year, it is commendable that he was able to quit considering how difficult it is.
But that’s how it is with children. They make us want to be better people. When a child is born, it is not only a new life for him/her but also for the parents. It’s as if a reset button is pushed and a question is asked, “Can you be a better person now?”
“I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time.” — Blaise Pascal
Where do you fall on the brevity/verbosity spectrum?
“Mama, do you know what a chatterbox is?” said my nearly 5 year old son one afternoon. Without waiting for me to answer he continued, “A chatterbox is a person who talks too much. Like me!”
Later in the afternoon I took him to the playground in the country club near our house. “Hello, good afternoon!” said the receptionist smiling brightly.
“Hello” replied my son. “I’m going to the playground because I don’t have my swimming lesson today. My swimming costume is blue which is my favorite color.”
At the playground he met 5 girls who were in the 6 to 10 years range and were playing on the swings.
“Hello, I’m Nadir what’s your name?” The girls started giggling and looking at each other, feeling a bit shy to answer.
Soon enough they were standing around him while he told them where he was from, where he was living before coming here and where he went to school. He also proceeded to demonstrate the right way to sit on the swing.
Wherever he goes he wants to have a conversation with everyone. He especially likes to talk to adults because they ask him questions whereas other children are usually too shy to answer him.
I don’t know where he gets it from as my husband and I are both a bit reserved when it comes to talking to strangers and generally don’t talk that much. I was joking with my husband that soon the whole neighborhood will know everything about us thanks to Nadir and we won’t have any secrets.
From the yeasty warmth of freshly baked bread to the clean, summery haze of lavender flowers, we all have favorite smells we find particularly comforting. What’s yours?
My favorite smell has got to be the smell of a freshly bathed little 4 year old (I wrote bathed not baked, what did you think??) who is ready for bed in his cuddly night suit and who proudly declares, “Look Mama, I’m clean and fresh!”
After a whole day’s hard work of playing, jumping, running, talking, sweating and a bit of crying, it really is refreshing to take a bath and wind down. It also signals the close of business for Mama who can finally relax undisturbed with her laptop. But before that can happen, the little one has to be put to sleep. Two story books and the third story from my imagination does the trick and the little fellow is soon sleeping peacefully.
“Do I have you on board?”
In front of Dave sat his three children looking at him open mouthed. They had been making plans for their Easter holidays and Dave had just proposed that they spend these holidays at home and make the most of it as he couldn’t take time off.
Little Adam looked at his older sister and gave a cheeky smile showing his missing front teeth. Daddy always sounded funny when he spoke like that.
“Daddy you’re not the CEO here, you’re at home!”
Dave smiled. “Really, then who is?”
“Mummy!” replied all the children together.
This post has been written for the Friday Fictioneers. For details see the link below:
http://rochellewisofffields.wordpress.com/2014/03/12/14-march-2014/
Saira had twin boys. Well they were not exactly twins but there were just 11months between them and for all practicalities they were like twins. As you can imagine, her house was always filled with excited voices, magnified screams, simultaneous laughter and heartbreaking crying.
One day as Saira went about her household chores leaving the two boys playing in the lounge she heard something unusual.
Silence.
On further investigation she discovered them in the bathroom with her younger son standing in a bucket of water with his clothes on and her older son pouring water on his head with a mug. Apparently they felt the heat of the summer and decided to have a bath with the younger one going first.
For a mother, silence sets off alarm bells. If there is silence and my 4 year old is not asleep then he is definitely up to no good. And if when I approach him he tells me that he is not doing anything I can be sure that he has already done it.
My son is extremely talkative and he is talking non-stop until he falls asleep. Literally. He talks while watching TV since there are a lot of questions to be asked, he talks while he’s having a bath and of course his stories are endless while he’s playing.
When I was pregnant with him he heard a lot of silence. I used to go to work where I would sit alone in my own office, come home and read a bit, not watch any TV and fall asleep. My husband was working in another city so there was nobody to talk to either. After all that silence, I think my son is making up for it.
But now I am so used to the house echoing my son’s personality, that when he is not around the silence can be deafening.
Chitter chatter, chatter chatter
Through the whole day,
It’s really so much better,
To hear my son play.
Tick tock, tick tock,
Go the clocks in my home
No sounds of sweet talk
When my son’s out to roam.
Weekly Writing Challenge: The Sound of Silence
My son appeared in an assessment last week and just yesterday he has been offered admission in the “big school”. He will be joining after finishing the year at nursery. I wrote a little prayer for him as he embarks on this big step.
The world awaits you my son
To explore, learn and have fun
May you always come through,
A mother’s prayers are with you.
Would you like to be a fireman?
Hotelier, doctor or even Tarzan,
May all your dreams come true,
A mother’s prayers are with you.
You’ll face difficulties on the way
Set eyes on the goal, never stray
May you never have a day to rue
A mother’s prayers are with you.
My baby you make me so proud
You are so special, so endowed,
May the blessings always renew
A mother’s prayers are with you.
OK maybe not Tarzan but it is his favorite program these days. Also he often says he wants to make a hotel when he grows up. Works for us!
Children can say or do something very embarrassing at times. I’m sure all of you have a story like that. Here’s mine.
For some time it was very difficult to get my son to go to school. He would just refuse to go and any amount of coaxing, bribing or threatening would not change his mind. I checked with his teacher and she told me that he was perfectly fine once he entered the classroom and during the day he would interact well with her and the other children. Apparently all that drama was just for me.
One morning I had somehow gotten him in the car, but he was in a very bad mood. He was muttering and spluttering the whole time he was in the car. When we reached the school I was very surprised that he got down without any resistance and marched off towards the building. Little did I know what his motivation was.
As you enter the school building there is a small area where the parents drop off their children. The Principal and the teachers or their assistants are waiting at the end of this area to take the children with them to the class. Now the Principal is a very strict no-nonsense sort of lady who I suspect all the staff and probably some of the parents (including me) are a bit scared of. But apparently not my son.
He spotted the Principal and announced, “I’m going to put you in jail and lock you up”. I think that was the punishment he wanted to give her for opening the school and inadvertently making him come there. The principal just laughed and replied to him “Who’s going to run the nursery then?” I was hovering behind my son and glad that he didn’t reply “Exactly!” to this. All I could manage to say was “Oh he’s being a policeman today.” I suspect I was extremely red in the face when I said this.
The next day to make up for this incident I made my son give the Principal a flower. However, he refused to apologize since he didn’t think he had done anything wrong. The Principal was very kind and said that it wasn’t needed.
Soon after my son realized that he would have to go to school whether he liked it or not and stopped making a fuss in the morning.
Daily Prompt: Isn’t Your Face Red
My son got a wonderful report from his nursery this last term. They tell me he is very intelligent and does his work with concentration. Now that’s he’s 4 I’ve got a tutor for him to start reading the Quran. And when she comes over to teach him, my son wants to climb on the table or sit under it. I can’t understand why he can’t sit still just for 20 minutes when he can spend 5 hours at school doing his work so well.
I also can’t understand why he must get up at 6 when the alarm is set for 7:15am and then jump on me in my bed. And why must he go to the park and then tell me he wants to do potty. Despite some of his odd habits there is much I can learn from him.
Last year when he had Animal day in his school he put a python around his shoulders and didn’t bat an eyelid. I could learn courage from him.
One day he was pretending to be a wolf and walking on all fours when he took a tumble and hurt his head. Instead of stopping he went and wore his bicycle helmet. I could learn resilience from him.
He always has an answer ready for everything. When I asked him why he wasn’t eating the cheese with his breadsticks, he said because he wasn’t a rat. And he wouldn’t have his carrots because he wasn’t a rabbit. I could learn to be witty like him.
He was singing a song and changing the words and laughing loudly at the result. I could learn from him to laugh more.
If he’s upset with me over something he’ll tell me to go away and when I leave the room he’ll come after me and try to be friends. I could learn from him to forgive easily.
And lastly he tells me about 10 times a day that I’m pretty and kisses me and hugs me. I could learn to be more loving like him.
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