My Nemesis - My Daughter

I think I mentioned in an earlier post; Yukta is a very inquisitive 4 year old and asks us a lot of questions on a regular basis. We never discourage her from asking questions, though occasionally we postpone them for a detailed discussion at a later point in time. I don't say this often but my husband is a very intelligent man who is still a voracious reader (the word ''still'' is important here because most people tend to lose their leisure activities on becoming parents). And in general he also has more patience than me. So I do what any self-righteous mother will do in my place - I use these plus points to redirect Yukta's questions to him! One evening my better-half was walking her back from school and they were engaged in their usual banter when she asked him a question that he did not know the answer to. (He doesn't remember what the question was; because like most husbands he also has the memory of a goldfish!) He was fumbling for words to t...

Yukta is a very inquisitive child and has a lot of questions everyday. And thank goodness for that 'cos I find non-curious kids... (for lack of better words) dimwitted. She upgraded from "What is this?" to "Why is this?" by age 3, so it is no surprise that I run more queries on Google than usual. Sometimes her questions for the day are not over but my patience is, so I ask her to park them for our pillow talk. One morning she came to me while I was trying to complete some office work with a question. But before she could open her mouth I told her to park it for bedtime. (Yeah, moms have superpowers. We can predict what the children are likely to say or do based on their face, their behavior, their extra-long-hugs, their I-love-you-soooooooooo-muchs etc) Bedtime arrives unsuspectingly, and after a reading of the Frozen II storybook  it's time for the pending Q&As. (Off track venting - the Frozen franchise is going to be a cash cow that Disney is ...

It is not uncommon for parents to resort to the Bogeyman (or something similar) when the children get a tad too much to handle. I remember several instances from my childhood where I was promised to the Bogeyman or a new set of parents in another city on account of my mischievous behavior. Even as a child I never believed these empty threats but well I didn't want to take any chances either, 'cos you know, "big people are crazy!" When I became a parent I resolved never to use this concept for behavioral correction for 2 reasons: 1) It is a lie 2) I don't want my daughter to be scared of anything But clearly Yukta picked this up from her friends at school or the neighborhood. One day on her walk back from school with my husband she repeatedly pleaded with him for buying some candy to which he vehemently kept saying no. She finally stopped in her track, pointed to a random building, and threatened, "I'll go away to this house, do you wan...

Not to boast but I got straight A's on my Marketing subjects in college. So I was pleasantly surprised to have my 4yo daughter jog me down memory lane with this principle one day. I was having a spat with my husband and in a fit of anger I turned towards Yukta and jokingly said, "How about we take this daddy to the market and exchange him for another one tomorrow?" She didn't even look up from her toys when she replied, "No, thanks. I've put in too much time with this one already."

Good parenting is when your 4 year old says, "Hey Google, play smoke on the water " (in addition to " Let it Go " and " Show Yourself ", of course). Thanks to my husband, Yukta listens to a lot of music from the '70s and '80s and bands like The Bangles , America , Deep Purple , Player , Led Zeppelin et al are household names to her. During the COVID 19 circuit-breaker lockdown days, Yukta and her dad have resorted to make believe imaginative field trips during playtime. One afternoon while playing in her room they decided to take a walk back memory lane and relive their experience of visiting the S.E.A . They decided that her bed is the seating area and the wall opposite to them is the large screen  for watching the large fishes. After randomly pointing at different spots on the wall and ooh-ing and aah-ing at the imaginary sting rays, manta rays, and sharks for 10-15mins, my husband decided to excuse himself. The second he got up to leave ...

For a 4 year old, Yukta is pretty sharp at using songs in her conversations. Needless to say, like any other kid of this generation she is a HUGE fan of Frozen and Elsa, and the songs from this movie franchise are obviously among her top favorites. The movies' crew might be slightly disappointed to see how my little one is using their songs though: When she is on the potty she sings, " Let it go , let it go, can't hold back anymore..." to herself. And when she is done with her job she shouts, "Mommy! I'm done!" and seamlessly continues into " Show Yourself ..."

We recently saw the movie Maleficent and my daughter was all gagas about the concept of Godmother-Godchild. A few days after we'd seen the movie she was sitting and doing some coloring when I asked her, "Yukta, do you have a Godmother?" To which she stopped coloring, looked up at me, sighed loudly, pointed at me and said, "I only have this mother." My husband burst into laughter. I am still trying to figure out how I am supposed to react to it.