Mother bother

Now that I am a mother of two boys, I know you really need qualifications to be a mother, writes Aradhana Sinha.

Being a mother is very different from being an aunt. You need to be qualified to be a mother, someone once said to me. Do you really need qualifications to be a mother? Now that I am a mother of two boys, I know.

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For, once a mother, always a mother. This is more than a full-time job, a life-long commitment. And believe me, mothers do need skills, various kinds of skills. Which is why I find my wishlist growing longer by the minute.

I wish I had taken a nursery teacher’s training course. Then I would have learnt how best to keep them occupied before they went to school. I wish I had studied psychology. Then I would have been better equipped to deal with tween-age. For, before you know it, toddlers become boys and the tweens are upon you. Very often the door shuts in your face as children enter their secret game-world. Unfortunately, I believe in open-door policy and it requires deft handling to open closed doors.

I wish I had taken lessons from a chef. Their eager questions about what’s for lunch and dinner (not to mention breakfast and tea), would have been met with an array of mouth-watering dishes. Or I should have been a dietician. Then I could have learnt how to dress up vegetables and present them as wonder-foods. Unfortunately, my attempts to give them greens make them see red.

I wish I had studied art and craft. Then file-work, chart-work, illustration-work and project-work that are a part of their homework would be easy. Unfortunately, I get art-fright; my fingers refuse to move and when they do, it is to create figures that don’t resemble what they are supposed to. I wonder if things change for the better when the boys become men? It is easy for one adult to relate to another, is it not? Just like child’s play, did someone say?