Who is kiddish—we or our kids?

Every evening, I do try and make it a point to have a conversation with my daughter about how the day at school had been to her; it is not always possible with late night office calls and my daughter’s need to complete her homework and studies. But we try and make it happen; the sessions have varied hues to them–at times it is a venting session, at times it is an exciting conversation about something she has learnt (academic or non-academic), and at times it is pure gossip!!!

It is very interesting to note the difference in kind of interaction that we as kids had with our peer group versus the kind of interaction that this generation kids have with their peer group. In my daughter’s school, the class monitors for various activities are elected by the students themselves; in my case, our teacher nominated the monitors and there were no elections. For us to be a monitor, all we had to do was to be a teacher’s pet! It is not so now: kids have to be able to work well with their peers and be popular among the group. My daughter has not spoken about any veto power, so I presume that the teacher does not have much say in this! 

Sustainability lessons from a swimming pool

My daughter has joined weekend swimming classes. And I had agreed to be her chauffeur. At 6.00 AM in the morning, I virtually had to drag myself out of my bed: It was a Saturday (an off day for me); it was still dark outside; it had rained (rather drizzled) most of the night and I could feel the chill. The warm bed and thick bedsheet that I had all over me was so cozy that I hated to come out from it.

But then, my daughter was keen on her swimming lessons: she had just started back stroke, which she was thoroughly enjoying. In her own words, “I enjoy just lying on water, watching the sky. And when the sky is clear blue, it feels like you are in a big blue egg!!!”. I could not disappoint her for those extra winks of sleep. So, I got up and got ready. 

A rescue act!

On Tuesday (29-July), I had gone to a temple near my house — it is a Hanuman temple that has wide open space around the sanctum sanatorium for children to play around, which is a luxury in Bangalore now-a-days! My two kids, who are aged 7 and 3, enjoy to go to the place because they can play with other kids who visit the temple for the same reason!

This visit turned out to be out of ordinary.