Bliss..

I had stayed home yesterday for the Dr. King Jr holiday(school and day care are closed so had to stay home for the kids). As I had always felt, a 2 day weekend always leaves me with a wish that it would be nice to have just 1 more day to relax before the work week starts. This past weekend I decided to treat it as a 2 day and completed all my chores and reserved the Monday to spend with the girls. I had a pleasant time with the kids. I had all the world's patience when I helped them with their homework which is a rarity, then we did a small experiment with matter states as their homework activity. I showed them how water froze in to ice and retained a shape of the container. It was a such a delight to watch them getting excited over it, checking out the freezer every few minutes while the water was turning in to ice (and at the end of the day I happened to notice that there were close to 5 cups of water sitting in the freezer). Then I warmed the ice over the stove and closed with a glass lid to show them how the vapor turned in to water again. They pulled up a stool next to the stove and watched it with such an excitement. I cooked lunch, that which they wanted to have not what I could easily cook. With the storm and rain going on outside we three bundled up in the bed cozily and did book reading after lunch. Divya as usual ended up pretending a teacher and read books until we all fell asleep and had a nice little afternoon nap. I got up had a steaming cup of chai while they were still sleeping. Ha! that was bliss..believe me,I was so very close to quit my job today...but yeah, no need to mention that I'm typing this out sitting at my work place...

How much can you protect?

The other day while having dinner Divya was chatting away as usual with her imaginary stuff and questions and also what she did in school that day and some where in the middle of this she asked me if I know the bad word that stands for this, raising her middle finger. I was shell shocked for a moment did not know what to answer. Slowly I recovered deciding that it should be handled as smooth as possible. I know that if you try to divert or cut short her question by commanding not to talk about it , it will surely perk up her curiosity more. She was as casual as she can which made be accept that she is not aware of what she is asking about. So I continued myself as casually as I possibly could. I said that I did not understand her question. She elaborated that one of the kid in her class said that showing a middle finger means a bad word, but did not say what the word is and she went ahead and asked me if I know the word. I said that I indeed know it and said that as she herself put it, is a "bad" word and totally not appropriate not only for the kids but even for adults like me and so said that I will not say it out for my sake too. She seem to be quite satisfied with my answer as she moved on to talking other things which is a sign that she is not interested in it anymore so no more questions about it. I too left it like that, but after a while I felt the need to talk to her because basically I was not settled in my mind. I sat next to her and as if generally speaking said that bad words are meant to hurt others and since we don't want to hurt others we should never use if we know its bad and told her that even if she hear other kids use them, she should either use the "I" message to let them know that its not appropriate and let them know how she feels. She was quiet for sometime and then just started playing. I think I did my best or may be ther is a different way to deal I don't know ...seriously...how much can you protect them? They go to a public school and they meet so many kids from so many different backgrounds. All we can do is to choose a good neighborhood, look at the past history and score of the school. We can teach them to identify what is bad and good and what is appropriate and inappropriate so that they develop self judgment while they choose/pick or associate themselves with other kids..rest I think is totally out of any parents control. Hope and wish that I will not be wondering what the H***k I was doing bringing them up when they hit the teenage..thats another whole story