Sigh !

I started off my day by scolding my son.

I do not like to start my day in a bad mood, because it kind of affects my whole day and it is the same for the kids. If you yell at them first thing in the morning, it affects their whole day too.

I was in a rush, there was leftover baked beans in the fridge and I wanted to use it this morning. So I asked my son if he could get me the sausages from the freezer, so I could serve beans, sausages and egg for breakfast. Freezer is in the garage and it is really cold in there. I heard my son huffing and puffing while chucking things around the freezer.

“Where are the sausages?” He yelled out ” It is really cold in here and I am freezing”

I was working last weekend and my partner had sorted out the grocery and I had no idea where he kept the sausages. So I told my son ” It has to be along with all the meat”

My son started huffing more and eventually he slammed the freezer door and came to the kitchen, grabbed a bowl from the dish rack, opened the fridge took the milk out, slammed the fridge door with such force that the fridge magnets fell down. ( I think all that slamming actions was to show me that he wasn’t going to get the sausages and was going to eat cereal instead and if I really wanted to cook the sausages, I had to go and get them)

And I lost it.

I told him off.

Every day morning when I go to the garage to get items from the freezer, I too feel the coldness. All the meat items are kept in the bottom two racks of the freezer and all he had to do was to lift the top items and look inside. There was no need for the tantrum first thing in the morning. It is not like my son is someone special sent to earth who can’t bear a few minutes of cold air and if he felt really cold, he should have gone and wore a jacket. I feltif I don’t get him to understand that simple truth that he is really not someone special,  in a decade or two, he will get married and will treat his wife the same way.

He went to school without saying I love you to me.

Just when you think !

Baby is in Spanish Immersion ( learning all subjects except English in Spanish with no prior Spanish knowledge). Yaya refused to help her in any way saying that she didn’t have anyone to help her when she joined Spanish Immersion and Baby just have to struggle like she did.

I was very upset with Yaya, but I didn’t have any valid reasons why she should help her youngest sister. What Yaya said was true, that she struggled and survived and so will Baby. I had to make an appointment with Baby’s teacher and explain to her that Baby doesn’t get any help at home even though both her brother and sister are fluent in Spanish. ( I used to get in to so much trouble at school when I didn’t know to do some of the maths problems.. according to my Math’s teacher who was also my oldest sister’s teacher, I was being simply lazy, because she knew my oldest sister was a brilliant student and I could have asked my sister for help. Unfortunately my oldest sister refused to help me by saying if you had paid attention to what the teacher was teaching, then you would know how to do the problems)

Last week Yaya had her first set of IB internals and she made tons of notes. After the exam, when I picked her up, she told me “Mom, when I get back home, I am going to make a celebratory camp fire and burn all the notes, because I will never be learning John Keats again for the rest of my life. After a few seconds, she said ” But then again, perhaps not. Baby can use all these notes when she is in Grade 12.”

I guess this is what siblings love is all about.. You may not see it all the time, but just when you least expect, you get this glimpse of pure love.. I am so happy.