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Kids Bring Light :: 17th March 2004

When everything around you is dark and somber, kids can do lots to bring light back into a dark and moody day. This is what I realize today! Let's just say things haven't been too good on my side lately....

At times, I feel that the world around me is crumbling and I feel like snapping at everyone. Clients hound me, hold back payment, things go wrong, datelines go awry...etc. It's like there's a few days in your life that is predestined for bad things to happen. When things don't happen, nothing is moving around here. But when it does, the bad luck just comes in throves. It's like being hit by a meteor.

One would think that the bickering of kids would make things worse. The crying and bawling will drive you up the wall. The unreasoanable demands, the inability to communicate well, the selfishness that is so evident in kids...they should make a less-than-pleasurable day worse, wouldn't it?

That's what I thought too.

I mean, I was having a blast upstairs in my home office, trying to iron out things that simply refused to be ironed. I took a break and went downstairs to be with my kids...you know, take my mind off things for a while.

Jed was trying toa can of biscuits with a fork and ended up hitting the tin loudly, clanging and crashing it. The wonderful thing about Jed is his ability to independently play all by himself, not interfering with anyone...and not particularly interested in anything anyone else is playing with. Now, this is HAPPY news cause while the others kids are always fighting for the toys that the others are holding, Jed really, TRULY couldn't care less.

I mean, he's an amazing kid. And he's so easy to look after that I sometimes wonder if he is actually my kid. Did the hospital people make a boo-boo when they passed the child to me? To put it mildly, I was a terror. (Yes, that's already a MILD version of what I actually have to say!) And look at the kid! He's amazing. When all the younger kids are shouting "Me, mine, me, mine. I wanna, I wanna, I wanna...", Jed would be hiding himself under a couch, shouting "hiding. Where? Where Jawet?".

I am not being biased here because he's a real cupcake. The maids all fight to take care of Jared cause he is the easiest to care for in the lot of 3 younger kids.

In the meantime, Josh was playing with his cousins, Isabelle and Yi Lin (yes, they are finally back from their Penang trip) and the playfulness was tainted with some petty arguments about who gets to go first...you know, the things that kids fight over? They were playing some kind of choo-choo train thinghy that the eldest of the 3, Yi Lin, have deviced. The rule of the game: everyone just follow in line, shouting some byline of some sort, hold onto the shirttail of the person infront and just do what the leader is doing. Simple game, right?

Wrong.

The problem is that there's no contention about who should lead the pack. Isabelle and Josh had a problem. They both didn't want to be the LAST....like it's the death sentence or something, you know what I mean? Kids have this ability to see these things from a lop-sided point of view...can't say I blame them.

Anyway, what surprised me was my ability to jump right into the game and shout, "What? No one wants to be the last! That's the best place on earth! I want to be the last!" and I just jumped into the queue behind Josh. Now, Josh is not the last in line and he was satisfied with that.

But I was having too much fun cause the kids had someone holding onto their shirt-tail and I didn't so I was swerving left and right like the last trailer on a train would screeching and screaming for the front runners to slow down!!

Guess what? Then everyone wanted to be the last!

You just can't win.

:: Marsha ::