Tag: H

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Pet peeves

‘May I have a pet’, asked H the other day. I knew this was the beginning of a long long debate which would stretch through the years because I was completely sure my answer would never be a ‘yes’ and my son is tenacious if not anything else.

“Please mama may I have a dog?” he persisted. “And I want a cat”, chimed in N.

I steeled my heart and reeled off my list of objections..
Our house is too small.
Who will walk it twice every day?
Who will look after it when we’re on vacation?
What about dog/cat hair all over the house?
And the doggy smell.. yikes.

After some time of back and forth.. we’d eliminated dogs, cats, lovebirds and fish.

‘May I have a salamander, at least. He doesn’t need looking after. He’ll eat up insects, he doesn’t need to be walked and and we can take him on a holiday in the car with us,” that was a tough one to tackle.
But “I don’t know where to buy a salamander?” Said I. Simple.

A disappointed H then said in a very small voice.. Can we at least adopt two children then – a boy and a girl for N and I?

Still figuring out how to handle that one.

Lesson of the day: Children are lower than salamanders on the pet-desirability list!

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Independence…

.. is a good thing right? That’s what I thought till H came back from school and decided he would do his homework all on his own. So what’s wrong with that you’re thinking. The thing is H suffers from ‘I know everything’ syndrome. I’ve blogged about this earlier and that’s the only complaint his teachers have had from him over the years.Just so you get the depth of the problem…

He would spell words phonetically and refuse to believe his teacher when corrected (as if the English language had any logic!).

Till very recently he believed genuinely, truly that he could swim, (without ever having gone in water more than two feet deep) and that he could breath under water (Mercifully, he was convinced otherwise when I put him for swimming lessons!).

He believes cooking is the easiest thing in the world (all you do is chop, add stuff and wait and it’s done).

He believes making a dosa is a piece of cake (spread the batter, put oil, turn it over and it’s done).

He believes driving is easy (it’s the same as driving a toy car.. move the steering that’s all).

And so today he came home saying his teacher had said he should do his homework on his own so he doesn’t need my help. I was pretty happy till I saw him make a sentence..

Notion (meaning ‘idea’): I have a bright notion.. I will tell you about it.

When I tried to explain it’s usage this is what he did….

I’m realising how difficult it is for parents to watch their children making mistakes, to know they’re wrong and yet to leave them alone to learn in their own time at their own pace. Not that I have much choice.
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