I resumed work after my son completed two, but he still hasn't reconciled himself to my going to office. Schooltime, its easy, all 3 of us leave together- him to his Montessori playschool and his parents to their respective offices.
But holidays are a different story altogether. We
a) try to slip off without him seeing us
b) package him off to the terrace with the maid whilst we dash off.
c) send him to the next-door flat for just the time we have to get out.
It was easy when we had our old maid, she was a veritable gem. But she's gone away to get married (I can hardly ask her to stay back given the situation!) and has in the meantime given me her sister's Ma-in-law as a replacement. I need someone who can stay from 7 in the morn to 7 or later in the evening, hence I compulsarily have to have either young girls or older women who don't have to run their household themselves. Hence the ma-in-law.
Like I was saying, the earlier younger girl was a gem, but this old lady, while quite efficient at doing the household work, lacked sorely in the child care department. She just did not have that way with kids.
It could also be that she does not feel the need to exert herself, for right now my Mom is with us and my little son is having a grand time bonding with his grandma, who in turn dotes on the little brat (copyright to mad momma!)
Anyway, coming back to the story, the next door flat has two boys, one his age- 3 and the other about 5. My son looooves going there to play. The feeling is reciprocated by the two out there too. They have a grand time creating all sorts of ruckuses and generally bringing the house down.
But the elder one has that extra streak of rebellion and penchant for creating trouble for the younger ones without himself getting into it. While he is particularly caring and responsible at times, at times he loves to thwart and can be quite devilish at it. Like yesterday, when I absolutely HAD to get to office early, and of course by virtue of that, was later than usual. The lady was new and had no idea of how to keep Sonny boy otherwise occupied while we slipped out, and her clumsy efforts alerted Sonny boy to the fact that his parents were going to do their disappearing act. The wails started emanating. We pacified him with that eternal carrot- Chinnu's house. His face brightened somewhat. We mopped up the tears and sent him with the lady to Chinnu's house.
The door was opened by the elder one. He took one look at the tear stained face and guaged the situation for himself. Their maid was in the toilet with the younger one, Chinnu, so I called out to her that I was leaving my son there (she was quite accustomed to the routine) for 5 min. She yelled out agreement and I shut the door, with a smile at the elder one. We were waiting for the lift to come to our floor, when the door opened and there was that pest, deliberately showing our son that his parents were leaving.
OOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH! I could have slapped the PEST cheerfully that day of all days.
2 months ago
8 comments:
So your maid got married.what were the terms?I hope she got a hubby she deserved.Mothering has never been easy and these kids have a way of annoying us.The brat next door seems smart.Well you need to be wished a 'Happy mother's day' with a 3 year old to attend to and a reliable maid servant gone!!And I am doing just that.A happy mother's day to you and to your mom too.
H GMom- Sigh! she has gone to her native place to 'see'the groom and tio have the date decided. It is the same fella I mentioned in my earlier blog. She has said she will come back with the invitations when the date is fixed.
Its been two weeks now that sonny boy has been trying to adjust to an old lady who plonks down every time he asks her to play with him. My heart goes out to both of them- the older one who is good at almost everything else 'cept playing actively with a toddler; and my energetic 3 yr old who can't understand the equations of playing with just one person running around and the other sitting down!
Happy Mother's Day to me indeed.:-)Will pass on your wishes to my Mom.
:) I & hubby do the disapperaing act too much against the advice of Dr. Spock. Dr. Spock doesn't need to deal with the wailings and the the heart rendering cries. Generally mom is getting her ready for bath by the time we leave, so she is plucking tulsi or sort and we sneak out :)
It’s totally cruel----To watch your son cry and yet know that you must leave him for work. What about your support system??
Sunita, Lavs- :-( Its totally painful, isn't it? have tried telling him that there is this ogre (hmmm, not a bad way of describing my ex-boss actually) who does not let small kids get in... but to no avail. He still wails to accompany us, every day and its more than a year now since I've resumed work.
My 'support system' is my maid and while the earlier one was a real support, I see that the new one needs a lot of grooming and training, before she will pass! Sigh!
No no I was not asking about maids...what about family..in-laws/relatives??? these days fellow blood relations feel happy to see others suffering instead of helping each other.
I can sympathise with you, although its been long time now since I underwent the same turmoil. I had a maid too and she used to carry my daughter to the backyard while I slipped off to work. But yes, some days were tougher than the others, when I left for work with tears myself!
As for the pest, hehehe, what pleasures they get by being wicked :)
Lavs: Hubs and I are alone in B'lore, while all our resp folks are in Kerala. So they can only come for a few days at a time. At times, I do bemoan the loss of the joint family system, but only at times;-)
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