Thru’ the eyes of a child

When I get back home from work, I can’t wait to see my 2 year old daughter again. As is the norm, I spend some exclusive time with my daughter, either playing with her building blocks or play dough. Some times we paint and draw. Or she draws me in a conversation about things that happened while I was away. Needless to say, I happily look forward to this time of the day.
The minute she hears my car, she comes running out to receive me and I can see her mouth move telling me something. So I get out and take her in my arms and listen to her report of the day! Yes... it’s awfully sweet! One day she showed me a dead bat on the electric lines next to our house! She told me in a know-all way that,”it died of shock”... obviously repeating what she heard from her grandparents who baby sit while I am away. She is curious like kids her age. She wants to know why anything and everything, happens. Her favorite non stop question these days is “ what will happen?” ( if I tell her to do or not do something!) Or she wants to know why I did some thing. “Amma, why did you laugh/hug/eat/drink...etc.! My mother says children are like sponge... absorbing everything they see and hear. I am made aware of how I talk when I hear her talk! She imitates me in her play... cooking, cleaning, shopping... even going to work. Children are like a mirror.
So the other day we sat near a window looking out and she in her budding linguistic skills told me,’ rain had come’(while I was away.) I told her,’its still raining.’ It was in fact drizzling. She said,’ small rain... baby rain.’ You see, anything small or little is a baby! She is quite a story teller. She continued, “Amma rain has gone.. to offich.” Very soon she had spotted daddy rain and baby rain playing in the puddle!
I realise that for little girls, the whole world is an extension of their relationship – with their parent. I recollect this anecdote I once read in the Reader’s Digest.
In order to break the conventional gender rules, this couple decided to buy a doll for their toddler son and three trucks for his twin sister for christmas. The boy promptly bent the doll at the torso going bang bang ‘firing’ from it! The little girl named her trucks ‘mama truck’, ‘ baby truck’ and ‘papa truck’ and played ‘happy family’!
And nothing changes when boys and girls grow up! Women love their family first and men, their cars! It’s there in our genes...:)