Today is my day!

Kids have a mind of their own and most kids, like adults despise being told what to do. My son is no exception and in fact he tends to go a little overboard when it comes to doing the opposite of what we want! I’m hesitant to follow up on any of Abhay’s must-do activities, like brushing his teeth, finishing up his milk or food, washing up after an outdoor play or completing his schoolwork, etc fearing that he might launch a go-slow movement! The moment I begin to nag, he begins to resist and the more he resists, the more I nag – a vicious cycle I’m not able to break! What is the solution? Relaxing the rope or tightening it even more? 

Today I read a book that suggests a middle path - give them a day off, one day when no one tells them what to do or where to go. “Today is my Day” by Anushka Ravishankar and Piet Grobler. A little girl named Tala finds her entire day spent in acting on the orders of everyone else – her dad swinging his arms to wake her up, her sister sending her off to brush her teeth, her grandma ordering her to have milk, her math teacher instructing her to find the solution to eight ninety five multiplied by three, her dance teacher yelling at her to bend her knees and finally her mother turning off the TV and sending her to bed! She feels that time has come for her to rebel and today is her day, might as well! Today, she is in no mood to have other people order her around and decides to put her little foot down. So she lets her imagination run wild as she tackles all of them, feeling riled- she sees her father turn into a bird flying high in the sky, her sister’s mouth turn into a slimy snout of a crocodile, her grandma mooing like a cow, math teacher turning into a multiply sign, her dance teacher freezing into a statue and her mom singing bedtime tunes on the television. Tomorrow, she admits  is a different story as everything can go back to normal as tomorrow is not her day, but today she asserts is "MY day"! A wonderful rhyming tale serving as an eye opener into the minds of our little independence seekers!  I should say Abhay quite liked Tala’s mommy being trapped inside the TV, singing lullabies!:-) Well…..we all want OUR days ….don’t we? If we can’t have ours, the least we could do is give them THEIR days …..Till they become one of us! :-)