Not This Mother’s Day

This, I think, is going to be my post for Mother's Day. We went through a harrowing experience yesterday and it just brought home to me what all lies in store. Makes me wish I could hug my kids close and curl up under a blanket for aeons…

Chubbocks, as you know, is a very gentle, sensitive type of fellow. His one experience of sleeping over at a friend's house seems to have left him scarred, and each time he goes for a playdate, he is at pains to confirm that he's going to be fetched back that evening. And, now that he's ;earned to use a telephone and dial his dad's or my mobile number, he's on the phone at the dot of whatever time we said we'll fetch him – Where are you? You said 4 o'clock, it's 4:02 now! Why haven't you come? In fact he comes up with the most hilarious reasons for leaving and starts hinting to his friends' moms from about 2 in the afternoon – I have a piano class to attend ( he's not enrolled in any class as of now)…we're going to my cousins' house (his only cousins live in Canada and the US)…and so on.

Last night we had some old friends over for dinner after ages. They have 2 kids, one around 8 or 9 and one who's just a month and a half younger to Puddi. Our kids got to stay up and chill with theirs, which is a rare happening since my brood is usually in bed and asleep by 8, so naturally the kids were very excited, They got along well together and had a good time, Puddi and the friend's son communication in some pidgin toddler-ese together. When they got up to leave, we all stepped out till the gate to say bye. Puddi was holding hands with their son by then and chattering away. As they started walking to where their car was parked, she began walking along with them. "Puddi, you're going to stay in their house", we sais in jest. Puddi nodded, didn't even bother to turn her head back to look at us and kept walking along with them.

A and I waited, with an apprehensive Chubbocks beside us, big smiles on our faces, waiting for the moment when realization would dawn that she'd miss us and when she'd turn and come running back to us. Only to be completely dumbfounded when this pint-sized Puddi kept on marching on and on and down the road out of our sight. Then came the sound of a loud blubbing. It was Chubbocks, waling to think his sister was going off! He wept and wept while I ran after the looney Puddi and grabbed her. I picked her up and turned to get back home, only to find that she had burst into tears, because she wanted to go off with her newfound friend!

Somehow we marched her back home and got her and Chubbocks into bed. She was still sobbing to go ages later, while Chubbocks was telling us that if Puddi ever goes for a sleepover, he'll really miss her and give her one of HIS toys when she comes back home. Much later A and I finally got a chance to deal with our own emotions on this occurrence. And we both realized we were feeling shattered. I mean, of course we want them to eventually become independent little beings and to take their own decisions but this was way too soon. Not to mention the total lack of any looking back on her part. It gave us a tiny inkling of just how it would feel the day our little chicklings finally leave the nest, and left us devastated…