Wagging Away

A few weeks ago while welcoming a reader to the blog, she mentioned how the breast-feeding dilemma was so true except she felt another myth was worse... natural vs assisted childbirth... (yep strictly a mommy blog... those with timid hearts need linger no more!!! Hehehehehe!!!) ... I had sort of filed it away for.... like whenever ....since my recollection of the arrival of my daughter was pretty hazy at best... But then I saw this ad...and here I am boiling with righteous indignation... Get to the point you say? Well here goes... First the ad: Attractive (who isn't, right?) 8-month preggie woman stretching near a beach. Still able to wear leggings without looking like an ad for an elephant in tights. And the blurb, " Learn about natural childbirth and delivery. Bring your baby into this world safely in the only way that is good for them... etc etc. etc" You get the picture... labour, screaming, babies emerging all good. Epidurals, painkillers, scalpels, forceps, baby eme...

Dear D-Poo, I hope when you get older and if this blog still exists, you will read this post... It's stuff I want to tell you but somehow never seem to... in the midst of the daily routine, I sometimes forget that what you are today you will never be again. And the moment will be gone forever. So before I forget I want to tell you stuff that I should have told you and may never do...Here goes: 1) I love you: I thought about saying this at the end.. what the heck I might again!! Not just "Good morning, love you so-you- can-go-to-school" Or the "love you" said in absent-minded response. But the "I love you" I feel when I see you stretched out next to me on the bed.. snoring ever so slightly. The I love you I feel when you come to me and give me a hug and say "amma, I love you forever." 2) Remember to believe the best in everyone: There will be times when people try to crush your spirit or cloud your perceptions (including thoughtless parents). ...

I'm back after a small break to do a spot of dancing... Performance went off well but it set me thinking about something else... I spent the day before I left and the days away worryig about daughter and hubby: Did they eat (properly!), did she sleep all right, was she cheerful at school, at home, did she keep asking for me, am I being a negligent mom? I got back, received a hug at the airport and she was off... so that begat (is that a word even?) the question...How much does D-Poo actually miss me? It's not that evident in her urge to talk to me over the phone (none whatsoever... urge, that is)... That hug as soon as I land is all very fine except that a minute later she's back to doing what she was and pretty much ignores me the rest of the day... and the crankiness- is it because she was missing a parent or the fact that she just caught a cold? Do we mothers (the over zealous, worrying, hovering kinds) overestimate our importance for the immediate welfare of our childre...

This has been bothering me and is not a mommy thing...So mommy blog seekers steer clear of this one... So we live in a world where globalization rules..and it is flat proclaims Thomas Freidman of the NY Times. And so it seems especially along the coasts of this country where states are proudly painted blue during every wishful presidential campaign.... And we immigrants soldier on... confident in our belief of a changing world where all are equal and our kids can go to Stanford...Till you get stopped short so hard and suddenly that the wind is knocked out of you... What AM I saying you ask? Let me explain... For starters I live in a pretty rarefied part of American society where most of the people I meet are liberal, many had heard of Bangalore and India before they became a collective bad word for lost jobs and telemarketers...All have college degrees at the very least if not an assortment of other letters signifying even higher education... And so I have had the good fortune to live ...

I remember this conversation from a lifetime ago (actually just 6 years but anything before D-Poo seems like someone else's life).. A bunch of friends... mostly newly married types... sitting around and chatting about the ludicrousness of people "these days"... about anti-bacterial Fisher-Price toys and how irrelevant that became the minute you put it on the floor!!! Or a table or a sofa or just opening it from its antibacterial package itself!!! Hermetically sealed for our protection it would be contaminated the minute it became useful!!! Well, that was like I said BEFORE D-Poo!!! And now I see why the companies do it... because there are enough moms who will believe something if told often enough .. even biology PhDs!!! And so everything is elevated to a learning experience: Sucking your fist is now an exploratory mechanism for "baby" to explore the world. Flinging stuff around randomly just because you can is "developing fine motor skills" and toddl...

Well this blog is developing as a "mommy" blog as a certain reader commented and somehow I am not able to stem the flow... It's just easy to write about stuff that occupies your mind everyday than to worry about Lebanon (Altho' I have to admit, I am particularly touched by this conflict given that Mid Eastern conflicts have been going on for the best part of my lifetime...) I was reading a blog entry by Rashmi Bansal (Yes sissy, I use sites you've listed and like most of them)... Made for interesting reading on the matrimonial ads in newspapers...Now I have long perused these very ads and found them in varying degrees funny, tolerable and downright abominable...I read her rather funny account of all the various types of women listed by type and degree of wanting to work after marriage... Unfortunately there isn't any real manual to predict what we're going to be in life and the baby curveball is truly something unexpected. Me for example: Those who knew me...

Wagging Away Chapter 2: D-Poo goes to pre-K Yesterday was so nice for me... with a heart bursting with pride I dropped my daughter off at her day care. With her cute turtle backpack and clean shoes and spanking new haircut. I fancied I saw a bounce in her step as she stepped into the room. Why the sudden surge of emotion you may ask? After all she's been doing this awhile now right? Ah! But you'd be wrong!!! She's in the pre-school section now... with the BIG kids!!! Now, how much of a difference this promotion in life makes to her is unclear but the difference it makes to mine is obvious ... apparently all too obvious... one toddler-section mother stopped to enquire about D-Poo and upon being informed she'd just started a day ago, she nodded sagely and said "Ah that's why you look so proud!!!" That's when I humbly realized that kindergarten "graduations" (complete with diplomas) were invented because of sucker parents like me!!!! D-poo herse...