saturday morning

Having a kid is assuredly a "challenging" experience. Last week I faced several challenges of high order. Thursday: left my classroom to go to the bathroom (the school is 'tropical' in its design; you walk outside to go to the bathrooms which are beside the pool). While heading to the bathroom I passed Ji's classroom. As I entered the bathroom and shut the door behind me I head a huge wail, an epic and screaming cry of "NO NO NO NO NO IT'S NOT FAIR!" The no no nos carried on while I peed, and about halfway through the audio assault I recognized the boy behind the yell. Ah, yes. My son.

Let me tell you, it's hard to finish a pee under those circumstances.

Upon exiting the bathroom I walked past Ji's room to check if he was still alive and the teaching assistant Jiji smiled and motioned that all was well. She later told me that Ji's outburst occured when he wouldn't sit down, saw me going by, and thought that the teachers had called me (what, telepathically??) to come over and give him what-for. Sooooo...my embarassment was not only sparked by how rottenly my kid was behaving, but was multiplied by the fact that my threatened arrival was enough to make Ji go completely off the deep end bonkers.

Bad behaviour is one thing that challenges mothers, but another huge challenge is overcoming how desperately we want to protect our kids from any possible threat, be it millipede, oncoming traffic, or other people's mean little kids. This week I had to hold back while watching Ji playing in the wading pool at school. I KNEW that other little waterrat was going to crash into him and make him cry, but you can't always leap in over the fences and jab danger out of the way. Right? Right? I guess it's also the downside of teaching at the school Ji attends. Most other mothers would pick the kid up at the end of the day, none the wiser. But me, I KNOW what goes down. I've seen the scratching and the incessant nose picking. In fact, my son is one of the incorrigible nose-pickers. Yet another challenge to overcome.

Buuuuut, the point is that there are epic rewards to this whole parent business. Like waking up an hour and a half ago, and having all three of us in the bed, and talking to Ji about his dreams ("...the whole earth had no life on it...there was water and sunlight, but no life...") and getting a big snuggle before having to go make his morning cocoa. That is what it's all about, man.

(And I kid you not, but as I typed that last line, Ji wandered in here wearing his cute pajamies, hair all tousled. And picking his nose.) [Ji Hong-28-May-2005]