• 

A letter to my 2.5 year old:

---

Dear M,

I had just sat down to my dinner of rawa dosa, prepared by your father, when you came and gleefully announced that you have upended the salt canister into the laundry basket. I did not believe you at first because after your last salt episode (where you thought the salt was sand and we were at the beach) I was very careful to put away the salt out of your reach. And then I remembered handing over the salt to your dad as he thought the potato subji needed some seasoning. A merest slip but what consequences! I could see your father get very angry and thought today you would get a proper scolding when he calmly picked you up and put you in the bathtub. We allowed you to play in the water and I went back to eating. My patience was stretched extremely thin today because after our last weekend’s beach vacation I had just about managed to tidy up the house for the past two hours, mopped and vacuumed the house, did around 3-4 loads of laundry to get rid of the sand, changed bedsheets and sorted the laundry. You were bored as I was cleaning and managed to create more mess as soon as my back was turned. In short, today was definitely not the day to put up with your shenanigans. And here was the salt on the bed and in the laundry basket – more work I was definitely not in the slightest mood for.
After a while, you wanted to be let out of the tub (thank god you can’t climb out yet) and started narrating the incident in your very (cute) angry tones. And then proceeded to give me “advice” about how I should just put the clothes into the washing machine.
I asked your father to let you out, even though I wasn’t finished with dinner… and managed to contain you from spreading more mischief.
Your father, having finished making dosas, brought out the dustpan and broom, and then the vacuum cleaner and cleaned the place up as you were engaged in “painting” my face.
The whole episode could have gone very differently but today, thanks to your father’s calm response and my lack of energy to yell, I think we handled the situation quite beautifully. We are trying our best to be gentle parents and we snap on many ocassions, but we are glad today is not one of those.
Now your dad is sorting and rinsing the already washed clothes and here you are nursing and drifting away to sleep, oblivious to such beautiful parenting moments that you bestow on us, and make us really grow into the role of your mother and father. Thank you!

Mumma