So, I have been trying, and in vain, if I may add, to teach my little one to pick up her toys after she is done playing with them. Most of the days she doesn't even register that I am talking to her. She is too smart to give me attention when I am asking her to pick up after her. Next, I resorted to help her pick up her toys with her. This starts with me starting to pick her toys and pretending how fun it is! She does join in for a while, only to start playing with the toys again. Or worse, finding that it is not so much fun!
Finally I had to resort to the illegal way of getting stuff done. I promised her a chocolate if she picked up after her. She was definitely excited, and also promised to comply. I finally thought I had the lion under control. But nada. She played, she went off, not listening to my helpless cries and finally, I had to clear off her toys all alone. A couple of days later, I hid her toys telling her that the devil took them away, because she didn't keep them safely. She accepted the fact and went about the whole day bugging me with incessant questions about animals, humans and the universe. I just HAD to give her the toys to get her off my back. So, I made up a story again about how the devil has given her “one last chance” and promised to return all her toys. And that she is to keep them safely if she doesn't want them to be taken away again. But! You guessed it. She didn't pick them up. She made up a story too. She told me that she met the devil and he is her friend now and that he has promised to never take away her toys. No mention of picking up the said toys AT ALL.
I have resigned to the situation now. After all, kids grow up. I am going to miss this stage once she starts keeping her things in order. Or that's how a lot of parenting blogs tell me. So I have left it at that.
Recently, one day, she asked me for a chocolate. And as always, I refused. She persisted. So I kept delaying it saying that she hadn't brushed, and then it was milk time, and then it was breakfast time and so on and so forth. Finally, after lunch, I relented. I gave her not 1, but 2 chocolates. The only reason being that that I like to eat 2 chocolates at a time. So I thought she could have two too, at least one time. Of course, she was deliriously happy at hitting this unexpected jackpot. I went about doing my chores of the day until she came up to me after a while and told me that she had picked up all her toys. I was like, “What? You have done what?”. And she gave me a sheepish grin and also a peck on the cheek without prompting for it. And that ladies and gentlemen led me to these 2 very important revelations:
1) Our government officers are overgrown children who need a “chocolate” first and then get the work done. Nothing else works!
2) Our kids have, unfortunately, inherited this from us.
Our genes have been corrupted. God help my country!
