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
