Give directions

We encourage our son to understand directions, know the way to different places, especially to our house. Exercise the mind, sense of direction and all that blah. While returning home after an outing, we decided to instill some of these skills in him as good parents. As we were quite close to our house, we asked Aniruddh to guide us. Now tell me, how do we go - straight, left or right?
Of course, children always come up with the unpredictable. Pat came the answer "U Turn!"

Can I be Krishna?

Children have a vivid imagination; but it is also fascinating to see how they have thought things through in depth also. During our conversation before dropping off to sleep one night, Aniruddh was looking very pensive. When asked, he came up with what was occupying him. "I am wondering how to be a flying character, like Superman". The alarm bells went off and several patient minutes were spent explaining the difference between fact and fiction, reality and comic strips etc. Peace and sleep. Or?
The next morning and again, we find a pensive boy staring at the ceiling, tapping his lips. Again the concerned query from parents, and his reply "I am wondering how to become Krishna" (his current favourite DVD). Krishna is God and we can't become like that etc... followed by his reasoning. "But we can. I will paint my body blue and put a peacock feather in my hair."
And to think we thought nothing would go wrong with a little religious values instilled early in life!!

The Kid-Friendly Route

Parents are suckers for everything that is "meant" for children. I am yet to figure out how we, as adults manage to live in a world that is full of harsh clothing, dangerous food, uninteresting personal articles etc. The children, however, have a great life. Custom-designed, copyrighted images sing on their clothing, we cannot bear to see them to eat on any plate or drink from a cup that hasn't been exclusively labeled and designed exclusively, their weekend activities invariably culminate in specialized places that make you believe they enjoy and of course for all of this, there is an exclusive price tag.

We have hassled ourselves about not doing quite enough. Oh we haven't picked up a toy in one whole month; oh he only has six pairs of shoes, oh the imbecilic cartoon character on his cup is getting worn out etc. Never mind that the favourite toys include those that are never featured in a toy shop - to list: broom, bucket of water, tongs, important files, the sofa cushions...

The pick of the kid-friendly items is the baby clippers. I spent three years, convincing a bawling kid to cut his nails with baby clippers. See the picture of the shweet fairy on your very own nail cutter, sho shoft it ish and all such baby talk to no avail. Confronted with a broken baby clippers and nails that threatened to become dirt tanks, I pulled out our own un glamorous, matter-of fact, adult size nail cutter in desperation. But the battle I steeled myself for never happened. For the first time in 3 years, Aniruddh cut his nails without a whimper. He enjoyed being a big boy. He found the clippers much more comfortable and he was least bothered about a shweet fairy not peering out at him. Ah well... baby factories need their business.