Lines we have all heard as kids. Lines we know are ridiculous, and yet we repeat them to our kids. Knowing, they think we are being ridiculous.
"Eat the apple, c'mon now, finish it! You will get apple like red cheeks!" Even as a 5 year old I knew that the skin of the apple wouldn't climb up to my cheek
and rub its colour onto me. My kids know that too, and yet I say it. This is not about racism guys, its just what I end up saying when they refuse to have an apple.
"Finish all the food on your plate. Don't you know there are so many starving children in the world!" I was never sure how finishing my rice and fish was going to help hungry kids on the other side of the world, but it seemed to make sense to parents everywhere. It definitely makes a lot of sense to me now. Its my meal time mantra.
I liked to make faces in front of the mirror, when I was a kid. And you know what my mom said? Say it with me everyone. "Your face is going to freeze like that." And she'd say it all serious-like, as if she actually believed it herself. Have you ever seen a person with a face frozen with their eyelids pulled up, their fingers stuck in their nostrils, and their tongue hanging out? Yeah, I didn't think so. And yet, today, when my kids fight and make faces at each other, "Mom, didi is sticking her tongue out at me! Mom Bond's making a face at me!" thats exactly what I say.
"Don't make me turn this car around!" You know how many times he actually turned the car around? Never. It was an empty threat designed to keep me and my friends quiet. And it worked everytime. For 90 seconds. Really though, in the history of mankind, has anyone ever actually turned the car around? Why would you do that? You'd still have to listen to the fighting and screaming on the way back home. And then, eventually, you'd have to go back out and complete your trip anyway. But I still say this line to my kids, with variations in voice modulation depending on the need of the hour.
And finally there was the famous, " If your best friend jumped off a bridge, would you follow her?" Well I usually retorted to this one, because by the time this line was being used on me, I was a teenager and more vocal with my thoughts. So the retort would be on the lines of, " Possibly. How long are you going to stay with this line of questioning? Kidding! just kidding mom. I wouldn't jump off a bridge to get away from you. I mean , I wouldn't jump off a bridge just because my friends do. So, does that mean No, I can't go to the concert that everyone else is going to?"
Things have not changed much from this line of questioning as well. Today when my daughter asks for a mobile stating the fact that all her friends have one...why do I say.. you guessed that right!! Why do I say...God Help!
"Eat the apple, c'mon now, finish it! You will get apple like red cheeks!" Even as a 5 year old I knew that the skin of the apple wouldn't climb up to my cheek
and rub its colour onto me. My kids know that too, and yet I say it. This is not about racism guys, its just what I end up saying when they refuse to have an apple.
"Finish all the food on your plate. Don't you know there are so many starving children in the world!" I was never sure how finishing my rice and fish was going to help hungry kids on the other side of the world, but it seemed to make sense to parents everywhere. It definitely makes a lot of sense to me now. Its my meal time mantra.
I liked to make faces in front of the mirror, when I was a kid. And you know what my mom said? Say it with me everyone. "Your face is going to freeze like that." And she'd say it all serious-like, as if she actually believed it herself. Have you ever seen a person with a face frozen with their eyelids pulled up, their fingers stuck in their nostrils, and their tongue hanging out? Yeah, I didn't think so. And yet, today, when my kids fight and make faces at each other, "Mom, didi is sticking her tongue out at me! Mom Bond's making a face at me!" thats exactly what I say.
"Don't make me turn this car around!" You know how many times he actually turned the car around? Never. It was an empty threat designed to keep me and my friends quiet. And it worked everytime. For 90 seconds. Really though, in the history of mankind, has anyone ever actually turned the car around? Why would you do that? You'd still have to listen to the fighting and screaming on the way back home. And then, eventually, you'd have to go back out and complete your trip anyway. But I still say this line to my kids, with variations in voice modulation depending on the need of the hour.
And finally there was the famous, " If your best friend jumped off a bridge, would you follow her?" Well I usually retorted to this one, because by the time this line was being used on me, I was a teenager and more vocal with my thoughts. So the retort would be on the lines of, " Possibly. How long are you going to stay with this line of questioning? Kidding! just kidding mom. I wouldn't jump off a bridge to get away from you. I mean , I wouldn't jump off a bridge just because my friends do. So, does that mean No, I can't go to the concert that everyone else is going to?"Things have not changed much from this line of questioning as well. Today when my daughter asks for a mobile stating the fact that all her friends have one...why do I say.. you guessed that right!! Why do I say...God Help!
36 comments:
Quoting the days when we were little is absurdity in the first place. And the young ones these days do not have the patience to understand that we walked a distance to school , or we had just one pair of flip flops for the whole year.
lol.. i still say that 'hundreds starving' funda to my friends.. :D..not even hundreds,it would be 'million' when i say!!
Aah, there were days when we used to behave like this. My siblings refuse to believe there was a time when we had just one pair of flip flops for the whole year and there was a time when people used to watch TV only in the evenings. Btw, I still quote that "hundreds starving" in order to make my siblings eat food.
Picking up instances of situations when we were kids is itself a joy. I still quote the apple and hundreds starving thing to my sister's kids.
ya right...starvation theory is common..and yr daughter asking for mobile...omg..just recently i had to give a long lecture to my own daughter who wanted the same for the same reason..hehe
God help you on the answer for the mobile. But, thank you for giving me some new lines to use on the kids. :)
My mom says exactly these things..and i guess , i would say exactly these to my kids , someday...
And all of these do make sense , in a weird way..
Your b log is very good, takes us back to days when we went through the same routine. Looks like there is some truth in the saying that history repeats itself.
I came from Global Madrasi's space.
Rama.
I don't use the starving funda on my kids at all, let's face it, it is pretty lame. But my mother in law uses it every day to feed Ayushi!
One absurd line I was fed in my childhood was if I ever swallowed any seed of a fruit by mistake,there would be a tree growing inside my stomach and one fine day it would rip my head apart and come out. I really believed it.
Thinking of giving Ishita a mobile before we leave...god help.
Times have changed and we expect the same standards as in our days from present day children
didn't know about the apple. use more the apple doctor one.
on starving children, well at the back of the mind, they realise food is not to be taken for granted and are supposed to appreciate . btw i dont use this line. i take away the food as advised by dr.spock and the child comes running for it:)
vaguely know about faces, but whats the harm in faces, just facial exercies:)
hey if it didnt work, we should turnaround. yet to use the line, but i never make empty threats.
on the mobile, ipod, one, i am planning to say, save and get it, dont know if it will work
I give my daughter deadlines to finish her food, homework or any other activity that she would otherwise take hours to complete. Then I give her grace time. Last resort, I count 1 to 10 and that's when it actually works!
I sometimes find myself using the "hundreds starving" funda hoping that she would appreciate what she's got and eat it without wasting it.
All these lines sound so much familiar....In fact my dad used to remind us of the child beggars we came across Mumbai Railway stations, and say you would only realize what it is to be hungry if you live like them...Now, i realize how much force feeding we were subjected to...
I like it............quite interesting
@Anilkurup we had a lot less stuff materially, what we had instead was real friends,libraries, and parents with more time on hand.
@Gayathri lol!
@Akshay to add to that list of your internet was not even a concept then!
@Anuradha yes it is a joy now, but it was bad then!
@Ramesh hehe
@Nona use the lines Bindaas!
@Gymnast life does come a full circle with meaningless stuff as these.
@rama thanks for dropping by and liking what you saw here. Hope you will visit regularly from now.
@Aparna God help us both I think we both are very different moms and yet we seem to have similar issues all the time..so i guess theres no right way ever!
@BKC Sir, our expectations have not remained entirely the same we as parents have also evolved, but yes, the gap remains as wide as ever
@wise donkey thats a funny name for the blog! Having said that,let me add that you are welcome to this page. The apple-doctor thing was used by our teachers more than by the parents. The best line when everything else fails is always, "BECAUSE I TOLD YOU SO!"
@RGB the grace time never works for me, with food and TV, they usually do it only when I run after them with whatever I have in my hand!!
@ZB my daughter says now, go and give them what you think we are wasting.
@Aparna thanks
I am your follower, so that any updates from you I will be there to read them and even come and read your older blogs too.
Rama.
right!! I remember mom saying "will u jump in the well just cz ur friends do it?" of cors, later in teens and even now playfully I say "Gladly, If I want to do it, I'll do it" :D all emotional atyaachar, I say!
sujatha have u tried singing anita renfroe's song
sorry for the h in the name, habit:)
i use to get if i eat the seed of a fruit Now a tree is gonna grow in the stomach...
anyway when we were young it was a different ERA all together you say something to a kid they go on to internet to do a google search to find out if its true or what :)
Things have changed so much since our childhood, go to school on cycle not they want a CAR..
but i beleive in the wastage of food.. and still say it a lot cause its TRUE :)
that brought a laugh! :)
Yes, somethings are ridiculous. But when we turn parents these come naturally to us, just as it did to our parents!!! I guess that where the absurdity ends!
I even today behave like this. And I am fifty five. You lose the child and you are gone.
I guess some things never change. I used to get most of these from my thakurma and not ma. Ma was more chilled out. :D
It's funny how we believed all these things. Come to think of it, my mom used to tell my sister and me that children who do not sleep in the afternoon and go out to play will be caught by the 'Afternoon monster'. 'Kidnapper' or 'goon' would have made sense, but somehow the monster was scarier...
One thing I would like to say: I remembered my childhood while reading this post and throughout I had a huge smile on my face.
I am always using the 'don't waste food when so many children are starving' line to little effect. It usually ends up like "don't waste food or it'll all go and add up in mummy's waistline." Which it does.
@rama thanks
@wise donkey did listen to it after you mentioned it, infact listened to it with my daughter and she said, "mom if only you could sing, your words might have made a mark on me!" So closed the you tube immediatly.
@Bikramjit I agree, i missed out on the growing tree in the tummy bit. It was an oft repeated threat even in my childhood days, I could see lemons and oranges growing out of my ears and nostrils when mom said stuff like that. I dont use it now though, coz my kids dont buy this.
@Bala thanks
@Radha topping the list of absurdities and a never changing one, I guess, is study hard if you want to become a big man!
@nsiyer good for you!!
@Nikita am sure your mom was chilled I can still see the green paint on her fingers!
@Destiny's child yah thats another one i missed out on. Spooks were everywhere very conveniently and could also be summoned at any time!!
the robin sharma book was boring ya sujata...but these points i liked...
Hey! My first time here and I like it! I'm adding you to my blogroll.
Nice pic you put on top...its pretty, which place in Oman? Btw I am finding Muscat to be interesting
as a fan of paulo cohelo -
u may like a blog from his country..
and one of his song..
http://sedimentosdateca.blogspot.com/2010/07/raul-eterno.html
Those empty threats... I too use them. :)
it might take a mobile or laptop to perhaps patch the generation gap today!
if an apple was an apple then, today we have it tablet or chwing gum form which too offer the same promo... :p
and by the way, they will soon invent wings so that you can jump off a bridge!
@Rajk thanks
@Pesto Sauce, its Yiti beach in Muscat. ever been there?
@Arvind, thanks, i am a fan of Paulo Cohelo, will surely visit the blog you mentioned. Thanks again
@Indrani, yeah, we all do..threat threat and then some more threat!
@deeps, God Help!!
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