From time to time, I'm reminded that parenting is a tough job. This is a story that perfectly buttresses that point...
One Saturday morning, I woke up giddy with one thought in mind:
“I'm about to have a normal relaxing weekend.”
(Little did I know that my kid, a 5 year old preschooler, was about to have a huge say in whether that would materialize or not.)
“Mummy! I want Tom and Jerry on your computer”, he asked.
Now, I had forgotten to pay for cable TV due to the hectic nature of the week's work. So, we settled for making use of our devices for entertainment. I gave in to his demand because I didn't want him to throw a tantrum that would ruin my “relaxing weekend”.
Together we watched the cartoon. During the show, I got a call from work and had to excuse myself. The call was longer than expected and lasted for quite a few minutes.
As I was ending the call, a loud sound caught me off guard.
A loud SMASH followed by shorter SMASHing sounds.
What my eyes saw and my ears heard can be likened to what anyone would call 'devastating'.
I walked into the room to find my kid smashing the screen of the computer with the TV remote control repeatedly.
“WHAT THE F*CK!” I yelped as I tried to figure out who was this child, and how were we related.
I rushed towards him with a rage and forcefully took the remote control from him. I looked him in the eye and asked him what in the world had made him smash the screen?
“Mummy" he began, "Tom was about to cut Jerry into shreds and have him for dinner. I had to do something to save Jerry."
My right eye twitched as my brain just replayed what he had said.
"You know," he added, " Jerry is my favorite.”
This boy had shattered the screen of my computer, because he thought a fictional mouse was going to get killed!
To make matters worse, while my child was beating the sh*t of my computer, I had also managed to drop my phone.
"How lovely", I thought to myself seething with anger , "A relaxing weekend indeed."
I'm sure this is one of those stories I'm going to tell him in the future. By then, I hope I'll be able to laugh about it.
THE TAKEAWAYS
Even the worst experiences can be learning experiences. I learned a lot from this moment, and have made some changes to ensure it doesn't happen again. At least for my appliances sake!
How do I cope with leaving him all by himself from time to time?
- I make sure he always has supervision. I leave him to himself whenever I have a friend or sibling over.
- I childproof his environment. I remove all items that could constitute health or safety risk.
- I keep him engaged. I make sure he's engrossed with something on television. That way, I can quickly grab a cookie or fix dinner in the kitchen before he turns the living room upside down.
Even with the precautionary measures I take, I still always make sure that he is under my watchful eyes 24/7...
..or at least away from the TV remote control, *wink*
What would you do if you walked in on this situation? How would you have reacted - comment below!