Parent Tips

A couple of things I have learnt on the job:

• Keep at least two combs/hairbrushes for yourself. If your little Mischief Personified has misplaced one, you will always have a backup one to comb with when you are heading out of the house in a hurry (such as to office).
• Buy a TV with the on/off buttons at the top, not at the bottom where your toddler can reach. We didnt, and hence have to put up with Mira's frequent switching-off pastimes.
• Remove the bottom latches of doors until the babies are old enough to understand things or are so busy with their lessons at school that they wont have time for such activities. I have been locked out on the balcony twice by Mira while Ash locked out the maid and Mira a year ago. The other day V had to kick open a bedroom in which Mira had locked herself in.
• If there is a latch on the outside of the bathroom door, beware! Your toddler can pull up a chair and lock you in. And there you will remain until an adult in the house decides to take a TV break and hears your cries to be let out!
• If there is a balcony in your multi-storeyed apartment, remember to have a grill enclosure and a wire mesh on the grill. Else you will find half the things in your house, if not the kid, on the ground below.

Most of my friends have overcome the toddler years, but for other would-be parents it may be useful to keep this in mind.

Two sick kids

Both Ash and Mira are running a temperature since yesterday night and did not go to school today. Mira's playschool is notorious for passing off infections every week.

The partimer has been reporting to work pretty late in the day since yesterday, with the result that V has to take a work break and babysit, so that I can depart for work. We need to do something soon. The options I have are: find a live-in maid at the earliest; quit job/ take a break for 1-2 years and take care of the kids myself; pack the kids off to Kerala to our parents so that we can go to work in peace.

Option 1 will hopefully materialise in a day or two. A chap has promised V to bring a person but the heavy rains in the evenings and a couple of other hurdles are delaying things.

Option 2 is not easy when there is a house mortgage apart from other regular commitments. And I am not the kind who can stay cooped up in a flat for more than 2 days, that too with two maddening kids. I am a free-spirited Aquarian and mothering doesnt come naturally to me! I would love to go off to my village in Kerala with the kids, but V wont hear of it. He threatens that he will set up a chinna veedu (little house, for a second wife) - a concept still popular in Tamil Nadu, with the reigning Chief Minister himself keeping 2 wives legally.

Option 3 is okay with me but V says the kids will be heartbroken. We have tried that earlier - but it is a difficult decision for all of us.