Skip to main content

Nursery blues

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 herself isn't quite so sure about her upwardly mobile status in life... as far as she's concerned, she's stuck with kids she doesn't really know, different teachers and different routines... but she's a trooper my daughter she is... or at least we've decided she is ... so for the next 25 years of her life she'll just have to live up to that reputation...seriously though, no major outbursts yet and seems to be quite fine through the day too...Of course, all that emotional blackmailing (about how all the big kids she likes won't play with her unless she's in pre-school) seems to be working at least temporarily...
So now all I need to worry about for the next 3 years is how soon "gifted and talented" children can go to school... And what if she's NOT gifted or talented? Is there some way I can find out now? And if she's gifted what does she have a talent for? Math? Music? Sculpture? Will I ruin her life if I let her stay in an average school?
I think I know why parents have second children... it's when they realize the single biggest threat to their oldest child's self-esteem and general happiness is themselves!!!! Spreading out the paranoia is the answer!!! So here's a question: How crazy are the moms who have 3 or more?

Comments

sreeram said…
here's a suggestion for your next post... top 10 kinky-cute stuff that Lady D has been upto.

Of course, this might well turn out to be a bit of a mom-blog at the end of it, but given the poo's cutie-factor, i'm willing to bear with it!! :)
12:05 PM
A-Muse said…
:-) dear Wag,
my ma said she decided to have a second child (moi) because they realised that my sister was getting way too spoilt (aren't all elder ones..:)... hehehe, im going to get thwacked for this, for sure).. and thought perhaps 2 children will help distribute their spoiling-talents..
End result= two spoilt children; and doubly paranoid parents :)
I think 10 is the magic number tho'...that's how many children by extremely brave, or incredibly stupid granma had.. I dont think she had the luxury of focussed paranoia..and all were better off for it :)
11:37 AM
The Wag said…
Hip Prudester...
Thanks much for the comments... as for eldest ones being spoilt comepletely untrue... the only spoilt one in my family was born in December!!!
10 kids!!!!!!!!!! Your gran needs the Paramvir Chakra... you never realize what a feat bringing up normal kids is until you have to do it yourself...
Although I must say, generations past were not saddled with useless considerations about children like "hurting their feelings" etc etc!!! Keep commenting, I love that someone is reading my blog!!! Your is nice too I have to say, although your fan following seems substantial enuf that I don't need to comment!!!
11:47 AM
Inkk said…
Wag and GB,

13 is the magic number in my family :)) My gran has 13 and to beat it, the youngest is older than my eldest sis!! And she still doesnt have a single grey hair on her head (she's 77)! Talk of paranoia (or absolute lack of it!!) :))

Humvee, my 3 sisters (yes!) have a son each, and I see them go through near death struggles to bring up the brats. Is it our generation, I wonder?

Also, wondering if having a daughter perhaps makes it a wee bit easier and tons more cuter? My boys are wild....shoot you down with a gazzillion guns, beat you to a pulp, generally make you a target of all attempts to show off their 'strength' :)) (including rock climing, you being the rock, chor police encounters, you being the chor and various other similar versions). Keep posting the cute things she keeps saying :)) Wish they never grew up :(

Completly agree more with GB on elder ones being spoilt though :dd T's truly an objective statement, it is...
4:44 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

To work or not to work

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...
7 comments
Read more

New Beginnings

So D-Poo has started at another daycare... all supposed pluses... at the university with hopefully like-minded people...very close to me... dubious advantage, I get to do drop-off and pick-up.. but on the other hand it may build closeness...or else I will damage her psyche forever by throwing out her favourite very annoying CD from the car...She's been very happy though and considerably less dirty at the end of the day which leaves me wondering why I didn't move her sooner... The visit to India of course has passed from her mind except for some ladder-climbing incidents and other random recollections of P-Boy cousin. But some effects we still fondly hope are true and long-lasting... like her attempts to insert more Tamil words into her vocabulary (she mostly sounds like a echo whe we speak but I'll take anything)...I fancy that her tolerance of spicy food has increased (false but I'm a deluded mom...gimme a break here...)...She still has no concept of tradition as I wou...
7 comments
Read more

Get off my breast!!

No, it isn't a continuation of the theme that darling Sissy started ... it's just a response to an article I read on CNN... and ad nauseam on every parenting site, health site, news site, TV ... the list goes on. The current objects of my fury are called apparently "lactivists"... an "empowering" term for annoying people who like to shove their superiority as breast-feeding mothers in everyone's face!!! No, I'm all for it... if you can do it go for it... it's functional, free and most sanitary and billions of people have flourished doing the thing... most intelligent cultures (which automatically excludes all white, caucasian cultures) have recognized this for eons and it's just fine. These sensible cultures aso have had the benefit of being poor and recognize that a full belly is the prerequisite and not what an aging hyper protective mother thinks is a baby's birthright!!!! So what evolved was a commonsense approach to feeding a child.....
4 comments
Read more