It’s so easy to forget the important things in life and I was reminded of it by my daughter yesterday.
I had had a long day yesterday and came back home carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders. Rhea was like a breath of fresh air. Whenever I enter the house in the evening I always hear from some corner of the house “Papa’s here” and the sound of running to the door. A hug and a kiss and my day islooking up already.
Charu left immediately to study and Rhea and I had our regular laughing session for the next 15 minutes or so where we get imaginary points for the times we can knock each other off our feet (Rhea is on the bed for this game) or the times we can tickle each other. Then I got a call from work and I had to sign on to the network to get it done. I was logged on for the next 45 minutes or so and Rhea was watching TV and had her dinner. I then tookher in for a bath where we spent a good 20 minutes.
I just want to point out here that Rhea is fast approaching the line separating a toddler – defined as a parent dependent creature – and a child – defined as a person with her own thoughts. We see flashes of Rhea the person more and more these days. One area where she always asserts herselfis, Clothes.
After her bath it always used to be fun and games while dressing her. Now it’s a shouting match.
“I wanna wear ved (red) dess (dress)”
“No Rhea. It’s time to do neenee (it’s time to go to sleep). Let’s wear the…”
“Noooooo. Ved dess. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah”
And we have to threaten, cajole, plead with her to wear what we want her to wear. But there have been instances were we have lost.
After forcing her to wear PJs and then pacifying her (which is usually a 5 minute job) I took her to the basement where we took out all her toys (and I mean ALL her toys) and started to play with them one by one. By 8:30 I had enough and wanted to make myself a drink and chill. All this while Rhea and I were running around the basement and throwing the ball at each other or playing with the balloons and blocks. In the midst of this I got another call from work and at that point Rhea wanted to go to the loo and I quickly resolved the issue over the phone and just when I was going to take Rhea to the loo another call came (which I should have ignored but like a fool I picked up the phone) and it was a friend of mine who I told to hang up and Rhea was still insisting on using the loo and I finally took her to the loo where she pooped. The moment she was done, instead of letting me wash her she ran away……..and then I lost it. I screamed at her and stared at herangrily.
And then I got a look from her that almost said.
“Dad I am just being a kid. How is it my fault for being just a kid. Don’t you want me to laugh and play and be myself”
I wanted to kill myself right at that moment. Here we were having a great time laughing and tickling each other and a little thing like work makes mescream at her.
I apologised to her and she hugged me and we went back to tickling each other.
Desi In Toronto 