“Don’t touch that!”
“Stop fighting!”
“Will you keep quiet for a minute?”
The parents with hyperactive kids cannot help asking such questions repeatedly. As long as the kids are awake they will be always after something – usually something that pesters or increases the work load of the mothers.
They start some kind of a game for which they scatter a whole sack of ‘what-they-call’ toys. After two minutes they lose interest in the game and switch over to a new one, with new ‘toys’, in another part of the house, orphaning the first set of toys.
It will be hardly ten minutes before you see them engaged in drawing or craft, preparing for a new collection of mess.
The games (most of them without any prescribed set of rules) always go beyond the expected levels. The game with building blocks may need a bucket of water – for an innovative game which they only know (may be they are building an underwater colony). The tent game will often end up in pulling down a whole shelf of books.
The culmination of the drawing game can be a whole wall of graffiti and the craft work can spread over to the bed spreads and sometimes even to the school books of the elder one.
Anyway, you cannot relax as long as your kids are at play because you could never predict what sort of transformation a game might undergo the next minute.
We worry and whine incessantly over these little issues. But will we be happy otherwise - if the house is shrouded in pin-drop silence and if things always stay in their place as if in a museum? No. I have that realization each time when one of the kids falls ill.
By the grace of God it happened very rarely all these years. When one kid is inactive the other too naturally withdraws. The sight of the toy-bags stowed away is traumatic. I feel the toys long for the kids’ touch – let it be loving or fatal. I long to see my little ones explore the cupboards for cookies. I ache to hear them shout and scream playfully. When they are away or silent, I feel deprived; I don’t have anything to do or anyone to shout at. This peace, this tranquillity is heart-rending.
My home sleeps.
Well, these are the moments we discover the real meaning of life and the futility of perfection. A house becomes a home only when there are kids to wake it up from sleep!
I enjoyed reading this post. I love the amount of energy and creativity kids put into their games.
Maggie,
Thank you so much for reading, and for the comment.
nice post.. i really enjoyed reading this ..continue writing such cute posts
all the best…
Happy to know that you enjoyed reading… Thank you!
Ya mam, you are right…Without kids and their cries , laughs and shouts,we cannot call a house,” a home”…If the house is shrouded in pin-drop silence without their funs, we cannot enjoy that silence,instead we will be disturbed, gloomy etc. When they scatter their toys all over the house, mothers will be irritated, but on the other hand they are enjoying their kids activities…If naughty kids fall sick, mothers always pray to God to help them to recover fast and they wish a lot to see their kids running, playing games etc., with their maximum energy…I like naughty kids
It’s amazing that at this age you could understand the feelings of a mother. In the future may God bless you with many naughty kids
.
Thank you.
loved this post because I can FEEL it!
You’ve seen how. At first I used to fret a lot about the house being a mess while my little one was at play. But then I relaxed into it and started playing with him. And finally when he’s done.. I clean up.
There’s no point in expecting kids to behave like grown-ups. Let them enjoy their childhood in their own way. But need to have a lot of patience.
Great article on such a common incident. Being the eldest one of my parents, I used to scold my younger siblings for making the room messy.I clean up the room totally and just after 5 minutes, it is back to square one. After reading this I understand their feelings which I have also experienced in my childhood days.
Thankyou so much……….
Thank you Hajara. Well, when we grow up we forget what we were like, during our childhood. But definitely you need a lot of patience.
As soon as I come from work, I start yelling at my children for keeping things at the places they are not supposed to be kept. After reading you, I have started a rethinking..
Thank you for your words. Picture perfect rooms can be seen only in serials, films and interior design magazines, but not in a house with active kids. Children are meant to be childish. But perfectionists expect even children to be perfect.