Saturday, April 17, 2010

Siblings - the bond goes deeper

Both my sons, who have an age gap of two years, have been the best of buddies most of the times, co-conspirators in all the pranks that they have played many a times and also the worst of the enemies. This depends on situations prevailing at that particular time. Those who have siblings will understand this.

From past twelve years since my younger son was born, they have been like conjoined twins. They have always gone to the same schools, they have travelled together in the same school bus, have been taken on outings together, have had the same set of friends outside of school. Within school they both know each others' friends too! Even when they joined some of the hobby classes we would prefer enrolling them into the same activity or even if it was a different activity it would be within the same premises. In short, they have been together almost all the time.

But this summer vacation we decided it was high time they took a break from each other and get to experience this phase of life too. We decided to pack our younger son to my sister's place in another city. My elder son had summer classes to attend to. We thought this would give both of them some breathing space. When we told both of them about this plan, my younger one said that it would be a good thing as he thought that his brother had been troubling him a lot of late. The elder one said he could now enjoy some peaceful times without his younger brother bothering him all the time.

The D-Day arrived and my younger one left. For about an hour my elder one went out swimming with his friends, played and came back home. After sometime we heard him talking over the phone to his brother. That night it self he started telling us that he was feeling bored, he did not know what to do, there was no one to play with. Within three hours of separation we knew that he was already missing his brother!!

Several calls happened to and fro (I am sure this time I will be given a huge telephone bill) between the brothers and is still happening. In fact my sister told me that my younger son was not his usual exuberant self. After spending the first day there, my younger one called me and asked me as to when I would be coming to pick him up and I asked him why he was asking? He said "Mamma - I am missing Anna (elder brother) a lot".

That sentence brought tears into my eyes. Well what more could I ask? I felt siblings might fight, be cross with each other, irritated with each other but above all there is this great connection between them. Despite all those arguments, they share a very strong bond with each other. I felt such would be their love that in their later years of life they both will have each other to fall back on during all times. Who better to understand your problems and to share your special moments and could be your best friend for a life time than your very own brother or sister?

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Celebrating the journey of parenting - a century of blog posts

Hey folks this is my first century- my one hundredth blog. Well it's been long overdue. A couple of years ago when my husband suggested that I start writing blogs encompassing my experiences of parenting, I had doubts. What would I be writing about? Would people be interested in reading it?

But then I noticed there were so many things to write about; my day to day experiences, experiences of other parents, trend stories - all these have become interesting materials for my writing. Yes many a time I have had the typical "writer's block" or let's say sheer laziness. But every time there's been a lull in my blog posts, I have received encouraging mails from friends and readers to restart writing. And the result is here - a century of blog posts.

My experiences over a period of time has taught me that there is no sure fire recipe for the art of perfect parenting. We all learn as we travel through the rough paths, the turns and the curves and sometimes the sharp hairpin bends, and several times being at the crossroads. All these account for my extraordinary journey of parenting. This art of course is not exclusive to human beings alone but many a things can be learnt from animal kingdom too, as you might have read in my series of posts on parenting in animal world - part one, two, three and four.

Parenting covers a wide spectrum of life. It comes with many rewards like in my post "Happy Daughter's Day" or sometimes pains as in "Worth the sacrifice?". It has its moments of courage "An ode to unsung heroines" and sometimes despair "Innocence lost". There are hilarious moments like the "Roller coaster of an exam ride" and moments of sheer frustration as in "cooking travails of a mom". Sometimes there are moments of clash in ideals and views as in "Gifts to children - be conservative or be liberal?" or complete harmony as in "Earth hour = family hour". I should say parenting covers a whole gamut of emotions in one's lifetime.

One thing that I have observed though; in earlier times parenting was very simple and relatively easy. But over a period of time parenting has become a lot more complex. Things have changed a lot since we were children. Guess every generation feels so when it is their turn! Everyday brings with it a new problem to deal with and a new solution to look for. It has now become quite a task for parents to juggle the issues and they need to constantly evolve and find ingenious ways of facing these challenges.

It's been a 3-year old journey and hopefully, will be a much longer eventful and an enjoyable journey. Hence I shall continue to go on this ride through the eyes of a pondering parent and look to share my thoughts with all you my dear friends, some who are known to me and others who are faceless but who have read my blogs and given very insightful comments and have been a source of encouragement. Here's wishing all of you a very happy parenting journey.