He Keeps The Child In Me Alive

He Keeps The Child In Me Alive

 'Necessity is the mother of all inventions'so Parenting is an ever evolving process. Daily new inventions and discoveries are made and bringing up each child is an experience in itself. Parents need to learn new tricks continuously to survive the counter attacks of Gen-X kids.

Mostly parents use Fear, Bribery, Incentives ,Emotional Blackmailing etc.to make the kids do their things. Initially kids succumb to such tactics but once they outgrow these tricks, parents look for new weapons in their armour. Parenting is honing your parental skills everyday if you want to keep yourself a step ahead of your kids.Handling kids till the age of 6-7yrs is still manageable but a tech savvy and a gadget lover kid is a hard nut to deal with. Raising every child is an experience in itself and if you jot down all your experiences there is enough material for writing an epic. 

My son was a bit timid from his childhood and wasn't a tough child. For him, I invented an imaginary 'Thak Thak Baba'-one stop solution for all the problems.'Thak Thak Baba' was an invisible man (like Mr.India). The sound of tapping of his stick was the only evidence that Thak Thak baba existed( I made that sound by tapping along bedside or by any other means and a low groaning sound). Whenever my son didn't listen to me or did n't fell asleep-Thak Thak-"Maa, has thak thak baba come?". "Yes my child."was my answer. He used to close his eyes , hug me tightly and dozed off within few minutes. I loved my new invention and could make my son do all I wanted. At times, I felt guilty because I was making my son do his tasks by instilling fear in him, but a sleep deprived mother of a small kid thinks only about end -thats few hours of sleep and not means. The best part of inventing this invisible man was that my son and I used to have imaginary fights with him sometimes with pillows or toy guns and swords. Our victory percentage was 50:50 because at night Thak Thak baba used to win and In daytime my son.As he grew up, Thak Thak Baba lost his relevance and I began my search for a new savior.

Presently, he is 9 yrs old and is the commander of his own army which consists of world famous renowned fighters like Iron man, Superman, Spider man,Hulk etc, intelligent commanders-in-chief like Chotta bheem, Hanuman, Bal Krishna and soldiers like Shinchan, Nobita, Shizuka, Chutki, Kaalia, Rajkumari Indumati etc. They are my extended family. According to the situation and problem, he calls the concerned person to tackle the problem. His toys consist of swords,beyblades, bows and arrows, toy guns, samurai ranger sets etc.Sometimes I am also given the role of shinchan's mother or any character role. Thus my acting skills are also being polished. He watches all the mythological serials happily as his granny narrates him religious stories during their walks. At one moment he becomes Hanuman with my dupatta as his tail, another moment he is Iron man in his shining armor fighting to save the world from evil powers or as Spider man wearing his blue underpants on his shorts. Now he is brave boy who can take care of his family but I am really scared of his 'Khatron Ke Khiladi"stunts. Throughout the day, answering his queries is a difficult task but somehow I manage. In tough times, I am still his savior because his army of superheroes don't know how to tie a shoelace, how to wear the vest or button his shirt, can't sing lullabies for him like his mom. Being the supreme commander of his army, he has to act tough and strong but a powerful master also needs his mom's lap to relax and cuddle, to sleep peacefully after a hectic day. After all my commander is only 9 yrs old who also happens to be my sunshine and helps to keep the child in me alive.

BHARTI KIKAN