Tittle-Tattle

We recently underwent the domestic change management exercise of sending our young daughter to a play school. Although we have been thru this once (our son), but still the anxiety was no less. It is very difficult to break a young kid's heart. Hand her over to a teacher unknown to her while she is still crying... And this actually happened when she exchanged laps between me and her teacher although against her will. In the first two weeks, it was all cries, sobs and such for - स्कूल नहीं जाना! ( I don't want to go to school)...  Two weeks later, again cries, sobs and such for -  स्कूल जाना है! (I want to go to school!) That was a quick transition, we thought. It was heartening to see her performing in the school annual day function as well, doing a butterfly dance -  When I left my home for the first time to join my job, I wrote a letter to my parents. The content more or less said that I am that kid-bird which has grown up and has left its nest. It was written in a...

How would you handle this? So far my 6 year old used to say I will become this, I will become that when I grow up. Today he said - "मैं बड़ा होके smoking करूँगा!" (Means: I will do smoking when I grow up!!!!) Out goes our reply with a long listing of our entire family tree trying to make a point that no one smokes because its not good (for health)... Added with some lecture on smoking hazards... Comes another statement - "But friend's grandpa smokes..." Discussion closed - No, its not a good thing to do... Think about doing something else... so many better (cooler) things to do... I am sure so many people would have thought about this for themselves when they were kids, but its always like "reinventing the wheel" when you become a parent and see your own kid going thru the same cycle; and trying to save them from what's not good and encourage them to take up what's good... PS: Cigarette smoking is injurious for one's health... ...

My son started going to school recently. We have put him in Pre-KG. He is just 2 years and 7 months. He was going to a play home earlier. We have also fixed a cab for him. School is for 3 hrs for him. Add 1 more for travel. He is not really willing to go to school, rather he is not really willing to get separated from us. But now it seems he has taken it as the inevitable. This is so evident in the morning that today it brought tears in my eyes. He was coming down the stairs, quite, I took it as a sign of "not really averse" to going to school now. Then he walked towards the door of the car, looked into my eyes, suddenly his voice broke, eyes got full of tears and he said "bye bye papa". What moved me that I was expecting him to say "I don't want to go" and he said "bye bye papa". It seems he has now lost hope for getting rid of this school going affair. This happened yesterday also, but it was quick. Yesterday, I noticed a faint smile on his...