Suranya and Me

Yesterday my niece, Suranya was over and its a ritual... at her bed time I have to tell her stories and my little naughty girl tries to make me compete with her paternal aunt Nidhi.... After 1 or 2 stories when I try to get her to bed she always tells me " But My Nidhi Bua tells me so many stories" and I guess she does that with Nidhi too... Well these little kids sure are getting manupilative fast... Anyways thats not what I intended to write about....

Yesterday I was telling her a story and telling her how all kids should listen to their parents... and bad things happen when kids act naughty and dont listen to parents and how Mumma and Papa are the best and they make everything right....

And suddenly she blurted out " But My Dad is Fat" and I was stunned for a moment and then I had to think quick and tell her simple facts that My dad her maternal grand dad is fat too... but he's my super hero .... And so with time She finally asked "So Even though my dad is fat... He is my super hero... right???" and I was like thats absolutely how it is honey....

Its after she slept I kept thinking .... "Where did she draw the corelation of her dad being Fat and hence not being a super hero" and I realised that when we show our kids super hero movies and cartoons.... there is this imagery we're drawing in their head and hence when someone spells out SuperHero for them .... Someone super fit... super strong comes to their mind which to me is a buserque idea... I mean all these superheros batman, heman, superman, spiderman etcetera ... they make a good watch but they are flawed, unreal and absolutely fictious characters.... Thats where they should be limited to....

Children do need to be taught the difference between reel and real.... I mean parents, guides, friends, philosphers, pillars in life... they are the true superheros.... I mean what is a superhero.... Someone who guides you in times of trouble .... Someone whose there to watch out for you... your safety net.... and who other than the above mentioned people fall in that category....

So basically when she got up in the evening we were playing and I was talking to her and she again tried to verify with me " My Papa is fat but He's the best... right ??" and I controlled my laughter and had this funny proud feeling and I was like "Yes honey, absolutely... Mumma and Papa are always the best"