Travails of childhood
Everyone in the square American family is busy. The lady of the house is the busiest and is also under job-related stress. The grand-aunt of her children who has come down from India does her best to help out. The taciturn LotH is not much help.
The most obvious chore the aunt can take care of is folding washed clothes and putting them in their proper place. Sounds simple? It is anything but in reality.
She makes four different piles of clothes to start with. This is problematic as the children's clothes are alike. The young grand-daughter has overtaken her brother in size. So size-wise segregation is difficult.
When the grand-aunt approaches the children to help her out, they have no time and they just ignore her. She then carries out the work on her own.
Making four piles is just the beginning. Each person has several compartments in individual wardrobes or chest of drawers. So undergarments, shirts, tops, trousers, nightwear, half pants, t-shirts, skirts, socks, bed linen, jackets etc. etc. must be segregated.
Voila! She has done so.
The next day, the children start. "Where is my T-shirt?"
"Where are my blue shorts?"
Everyone in the square American family is busy. The lady of the house is the busiest and is also under job-related stress. The grand-aunt of her children who has come down from India does her best to help out. The taciturn LotH is not much help.
The most obvious chore the aunt can take care of is folding washed clothes and putting them in their proper place. Sounds simple? It is anything but in reality.
She makes four different piles of clothes to start with. This is problematic as the children's clothes are alike. The young grand-daughter has overtaken her brother in size. So size-wise segregation is difficult.
When the grand-aunt approaches the children to help her out, they have no time and they just ignore her. She then carries out the work on her own.
Making four piles is just the beginning. Each person has several compartments in individual wardrobes or chest of drawers. So undergarments, shirts, tops, trousers, nightwear, half pants, t-shirts, skirts, socks, bed linen, jackets etc. etc. must be segregated.
Voila! She has done so.
The next day, the children start. "Where is my T-shirt?"
"Where are my blue shorts?"
"I want grey tights."
"For sports, I need my navy blue leggings/trousers."
Luckily their swimming gear is in another bag. They will overlook the simple job of keeping out wet gear to dry till the next swimming day.
They turn everything in drawers upside down to locate what they want. They come to the grand-aunt and show her where her mistake lay. "You got us all confused!" They declare.
Getting them to their Tae-Kwan-Do class in time is a supreme achievement of their mother. The grand-aunt had taken out these clothes last time and had folded them before their mother started shouting.
Getting them to their Tae-Kwan-Do class in time is a supreme achievement of their mother. The grand-aunt had taken out these clothes last time and had folded them before their mother started shouting.
"You made a mistake. You have put his clothes in my bag." The grand-daughter tells her amidst laughter.
The grand-aunt wants to box her ears. The time they have taken to inform her of her mistakes could easily have been used to do the work which is their proper work. But no!
No amount of yelling works. The kids are thick-skinned in this respect.
The grand-aunt realizes the plight of her niece who has always maintained that everyone gives her advice without understanding her side of the story.
