Hiding places

Today was the last of Ash's exams - so he has officially completed Grade 11. Hopefully, he will clear the papers with decent marks though all this year he has been telling me to let him be this year and that he will study in earnest next year.

Today was his least favourite subject - Political Science - and hence he didnt spend much time studying. Psychology is his favourite though he finds the theory boring. Economics is boring too but we are still hopeful he will follow his uncle's footsteps. Statistics is very interesting which is surprising for someone who found Maths his nemesis until Grade 10. English is a breeze while he is clueless about Informatics Practices which is not very conducive for online learning. Next year, the school will offer him PE as an additional subject to help score marks in case he fails to perform well in the other subjects.  The PE option is there for everyone.

What I was planning to write was not about his Humanities choices. Rather it is about how he wants to spend the next 10 days. Of course, half the day will go in sleeping and he will wake up to have lunch followed by videogaming. That is not good parenting, I know, but that is what children have been doing here in Covid times. The fear of the outdoors and a virus has meant that teens dont step out of their rooms. A very worrying trend that many parents notice in their homes.

So, our man as soon as the exams got over reminded me that I keep his PS4 remote controller ready by 2 pm. Since we have put him on to keyboard classes online on Mondays, it means that he will have to stop by 6 pm. The timings I allow is 3 hours when I hand over the controller but invariably he exceeds the deadline by an hour or two. The two days a week gaming hours will now revert to daily sessions.

I still havent come to what I meant to say in the first place. It is my penchant for hiding his remote controller after play. I have a few dedicated spots but sometimes in an absent minded state, I keep it elsewhere and I am not able to recollect for the life of me where I kept it. Since there is a spare controller, I somehow manage to find at least one of them on the days he has to play.

Today, again I couldnt find it and as I kept searching high and low, Ash came to me and said that I hadnt hidden it after all and it was there along with the PS4.

My other hiding activity involves chocolates and other sweets that I stock in the house for them. The ones that are not hidden are finished in no time. Most time, they detect my new hiding places. I must say I am having better luck with a few new places which unfortunately I cant divulge here.

It reminds me of a story my neighbourhood Madukamootil ammachi told us on one of her numerous visits to my granny. It was about the kids in a house stealing the money kept in the house. So the wife advises the husband to hide it in the Bible, a very unlikely place children will search or open to read!