Many years ago, I was invited to a dance party. It was held in one of my friend’s house. We had to cart all the furniture in the living room to the balcony, so there was room to dance..What I remember the most of that evening dancing in a room with no furniture was the wall clock she had..It didn’t have any number on it. just two words “tempus fugit” ( time flies).
Tempus fugit is the first Latin phrase I taught my kids.
When you teach children, you expect them to understand what you are trying to teach them.. No?? You don’t really expect that your children can teach you a thing or two..
Yesterday my youngest wanted to go to the library because she finished reading the books we borrowed on Tuesday. So I took her ( the fact that the library is air conditioned and that it was 31 degrees yesterday also played a part in my decision to take her to the library)
I do prefer the kids go to bed at 9 pm ( except on Friday which is ‘any time o’clock bed time)
My son has been the first to push the bed time rule..he does switch off the light at 9 pm and then read using the phone torch..So I gave up trying to force the kids to sleep at 9.
My youngest went to bed at 11 pm last night. Before she turned off the light, she came to me and told me” Mom, please wake me up early tomorrow morning, I haven’t done my home work”
She is given the home work on Monday and has to submit the completed work on Friday. At 11 pm, just before she went to bed, I didn’t want to scold her. But I was very angry with her.
I woke her up at 6.30 this morning.
Yaya wanted Panini for school lunch and I was busy in the kitchen.
I went to check on the homework progress to find my child laying down on my bed and reading her book.
“Have you done your home work?” I asked her”
“not yet mom, don’t worry, I will do it now”
I was pretty mad at her, so I raised my voice and told her to
“get up now and do your home work”
“jeez mom, what is your problem?” She asked, while continuing to read her book
My blood was boiling..The nerve she has..and she dares to ask me what is my problem, not enough that she was not even looking at me.
“my problem is ‘time flies’ and you haven’t done your home work and you need to submit it today, you should have done your home work on Monday and you waited until Friday morning. This is unacceptable”
She raised her head over the top of the book and looked at me for a few seconds and then replied

“Mom, time sure flies, but you are forgetting that there is a time for everything. If I did my home work on Monday or 10 minutes before it is due on Friday, the end result is still the same, so leave me alone”
The truth is I was lost for words.. I was tempted to do a mallu style argument, tharkkutharam parayunnodi..But the truth is, she was right. I don’t know why I am forcing them to do their home work in advance when the end result is still the same.
She did finish her home work at 8.25 am, then got me to check it to make sure that she didn’t make any mistakes.
Tempus fugit..may be not really