As any mother knows, it is a luxury to be left alone by the kids even for a few minutes. I can't read the papers, blog, take a shower or even use the toilet without the girls yelling for me or coming to talk to me. So when I saw this book, Five Minutes' Peace, which tells of a Mummy Elephant whose three little ones would not give her even five minutes' peace, I knew I had to get the book. I wanted the girls to understand how it feels for me to be constantly hounded by them and how much I, like the Mummy Elephant, would appreciate just five minutes' peace.
Last evening, I read the book to Pumpkin and Sai Pi (Tai Pi had read it by herself earlier), and as I read the story, I could see that Pumpkin recognised herself in the book and there was a look of guilt on her face. Sai Pi just thought it was a funny book. This morning, as the girls went Mummy this and Mummy that, I reminded them of the story and asked them if they would ever give me five minutes' peace.
Tai Pi had this to say:
"We'll give you two minutes' peace. Do you know why we don't give you five minutes' peace? Because we like you so much [Tai Pi hugs me at this point] and we want to spend a lot of time with you."
Aww... now how am I to argue against this?
4 comments:
Interesting book you got. Must keep a look out for it. I also want peace, and 5 minutes not enough leh!
But your daughters are really sweet. Ah...how to reject their requests right?
When Tai Pi said what she said, I felt guilty - they want to spend time with me because they like me and here I am always trying to push them aside so that I can read the newspapers in peace. It can be hard trying to balance spending time with the kids and having your own personal space.
I thought my kids were bad until I read your post. At least, my 4 kids play with each other so they leave me in peace. But they always shower me with hugs and kisses and say 'I love you'. I guess you get worse hit because you're working all the time and the only time they have with you is after work, which is not much. So enjoy every moment with them and be thankful. Come to think of it, you do get more than enough peace away from them - at work!
That's the problem - because I'm away from them when I'm at work, when I'm home they expect me to spend all my time with them. But it's not like I have any peace when I'm at work you know! I just want some time to myself.
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