Shaurya's Chronicles

Shaurya still doesn't speak properly and picks up words at random, but I guess that hasn't deterred him from learning his first lessons on cleanliness.

I am kind of particular about keeping the place neat and tidy and really prefer having things around me spick and span. It so happened that, the other day, the household help didn’t turn up and I was doing the dusting around the house. I did not notice this but my little prince, as usual, was keenly observing what his Mom was busy with. 

So away he went and got his shorts from somewhere and began aping me. I took it as an opportunity to teach him a new word and started repeating.. ‘Dusting’ and then brushed on a decoration piece to help him correlate the word. His little mind did work hard at it and the next thing he did was to come near me and started dusting me. Probably this was his way of reminding me that I was messy too from the morning chores and needed a shower. I could not help being amused over the fact that of all things in the vicinity the only thing that my Hero found worth dusting was his Mamma. 

Talking about cleanliness reminds me of another of Shaurya's antics, this time for brushing his teeth. While in US, my sister used to make it a point to hand him a toothbrush in the morning to get him to inculcate the habit. He did pick up the habit quickly, may be because he used to see my sister's daughter, who is not much older than him, do it and he learnt how to do it on his own.

And, now when we are back home, he kind of lost the trick and now I have to force him to hold the brush and then he throws all his tantrums so as to avoid the morning routine.

However, for past two or three days now I suddenly noticed that he was onto brushing his teeth again. But only when I looked close enough did I realize that  my little champion was at his naughty best and had just been fooling me with the pretence of brushing his teeth. Actually he was just licking the toothpaste on the brush, which happened to be a nice bubblegum flavor and instead of brushing his teeth he was just rubbing it on his tongue, so as to enjoy the tooth paste.

It became amazingly funny see him apply his little head and come out with such tricks. At all such times I just sit back and wonder at the presence of mind that kids tend to possess.

I guess parenting also teaches you to be a good learner all over again. Since the kid would copy you most of the time and so learn his lessons, it becomes imperative that you put up your best act for the child to follow suit and learn from your actions.

"I guess when a mother teaches her child, at times she learns more than the kid does."