Over last year, I tried a lot of mind training. I focused mostly on my parenting skills and how I can be a nicer parent. I've always been focused on being a disciplinarian but he has made me a nicer parent. It's learning both ways. There have been moments when G would want to try something that i would never want to do. Then I would go ahead and try it anyway.
For instance, he once saw me putting on kajal and said, 'Amma, you look pretty. You should put that everyday.' And I did. I tried it for a while and then I stopped again. But the days I did wear it, G would say the sweetest things - 'Amma, you wore it because I told you to. It doesn't hurt your eyes no?' Another day he just said, 'don't open your eyes fully. They are already big!' He's funny and can make me laugh as much as he can make me a crazy person.
He tried for me too. I wanted him to learn swimming. Not for silly reasons like 'what if you fall into the river' types. I'm aware enough that our rivers dont have water. My reasons for his swimming lessons were simple.. to encourage a sport in him, to help him learn what exhaustion meant, to help him understand the courage he needed to show himself. He did. He learnt to stay afloat on the fourth day and by day seven he was swimming. After two months of classes, he said he wasn't interested to continue. Fair enough.
Talking to him has taught me so much. He hasn't showed too much interest in cycling or cricket. Being the two activities the kids at my apartments play the most, he would come back home and say he wanted to watch his Bahubali CD. For a while, I did feel worried. But his interest was to watch the Hindi version. He would listen to all dialogues and whenever I spoke in Hindi, he would ask for meanings. It made me so happy to see a little language loving nerd in him. I haven't discouraged the Baahubali addiction. Indian superheroes are so few. At least this one is somewhere from our History.
Loads of stuff didn't work for me. Every time I drop G at school, I would see other mother's all dressed up and decked up at 830am and I always thought my track pants and mommy waali tees were just not good enough. I decided to make myself looks presentable at the least but I'm just not made of that material. Even for the few days that I tried it, G would say, 'Amma, come like you.' This minion likes kajal eyed mommy in track pants and tees. Fair enough.
Trying to read more didn't work out for me last year at all. I gave in to the Amazon Prime videos for the last two months on 2017 and I have successfully weaned away from them. Once you start rusting on Netflix and Amazon prime, you are rust ridden. For someone who hates TV, I was addicted to them for 2 months of time I will never get back.
I'm back to reading now. Starting 2018 with The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck. Given the irony of this post, I thought I should write about my side of this topic before I jump into the author's.
30s seem like fun.
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