I was jolted out of Comfort zone after this conversation with my 12 year old daughter one morning.
It dawned upon me how easily we have adapted to this catastrophic change in the tectonic layers of foundation of our kids' upbringing and growth. The steady shift of an extrovert to an introvert, like the shifting of the uppermost mantle, but I quickly surface from my imagination of seeing my child as the Earth.
The conversation:
I walked into the room to see her nicely propped up in bed, with sleepy eyes. I handed her a glass of cold coffee.
And she started sipping it like a sleep owl. To make her active I always talk a lot in the morning with her as I feel I'm doing a good act of activating and rebooting her to start her day.
Me: HEY, so which class is going on?
Daughter: P-ed, she says groggily
Me: P-ED ! I exclaim ... physical education in BED ????
Daughter: Yes mom, my video is off and so is for all the other kids videos, as ma'am is just talking about P-ED.
Me: WHAT'S THERE TO TALK IN P-ED, I am almost hyper. Shouldn't you be up on the floor swinging your arms and doing forward bends or something.
Daughter: She looks at me and says I do my workout in the evening so I don’t have to do it now and ma'am can’t see.
I’m sleepy and she dunks further into her bed .
I felt so terrible and my heart just cringed seeing her innocent face. She has no idea what she is losing out on, it’s very difficult for her to behave normal in these abnormal circumstances.
School instills discipline, school ensures that the gates are shut on your face if you are late, and that snap in the brain of the child does the trick of creating the ripple effect of discipline and organizational skills. It is not that our children are lazy, it’s the silent Tsunami which has crept up into our lives which has changed the face of the Lithosphere .
Mommy mode on. Some things that I do to motivate her:
I ask her to make her own schedule.
I ask her what she wants to do every single day.
I ask her questions in (options of three) so she doesn’t feel stuck with a direct answer. Eg:- what should we do today, cooking, reading or should we do some kickboxing? Or etc etc
Fortunately something must’ve worked out right as I write this blog and she’s in her room sorting her old books in different cartons to give away so she can make room for her new collection of books. Reading became an important part of her life in the Pandemic. We often have a DEAR period at home Drop-Everything–And–Read.
To give myself hope I think of it like a WAVE (since it’s the word of the decade), in which children may have lost many things but have also picked up a good habit or two .
Rasika Bhatia
( India )