I am a scatter brain and can be easily overwhelmed by little things yet big things do not move me. I have no natural gifts when it comes to planning in advance, whether it is holidays, meals, outings, love, hate everything in my life is about the moment and for the moment. Life for me should never be mundane....but lately I stand corrected. I have been made to realize the fact that as a mother nurturing a childs future in a super methodical country like UK, I have to plan well in advance. It took me five years and a child to come to terms that well in advance actually meant Before Christ. I was expected to book my childs place in school even before I properly understood my ovulation cycles. I did not understand this when my baby arrived, as the diapers, her smiles and joys of motherhood stretched my mental bandwidth. The result of this indulgence has been devastating, I have now lost out on all good schools, where people have been waiting for five years. Some are even planning their second child but they have booked the place and also have the tuition for the entrance exam ready to start by the time the baby starts teething. I am waiting grinding my teeth for a place when my daughter is 7. I tried to book her into the best national swimming lessons and was told that I have to wait for at-least 5 years for weekend coaching and 1 year for weekday classes. I now secretly hope that in a years time I am either thrown out of my job or I win a million dollars in lottery so that I am free to take her for the weekday classes because by the time she qualifies for the weekend classed she might be attending her graduation ceremony. I tried to get her into the 2013 autumn break drama classes and swimming club two months ago and I was told that the places are booked 10 months in advance, God! 10 months ago was summer of 69. How on earth do parents know what they want? or better still what their child likes? I am now in line for 2014. I have now realized that in this life, if I aspire to provide the best for my child, I am going to be on a never ending wait list. So I have decided to start planning short term goals and also attempt to start living in the future. Back home, money and talent may get you in and out of everything wonderful and fantastic but every aspect of life here is expected to be planned and painfully systematic. OOO (Out of the box) thinking or behaviour is not encouraged and innovation is not natural. No wonder when anything out of pattern emerges the city, life and the spirit comes to a standstill. But when it comes to basics and the normal, this system is efficient and rewarding for ones who know what they want and where to get it from. Maybe the planning and organizing is supposed to come obviously to parents but I am learning it the hard way, Unfortunately, so is my 5 year old, every second of her precious childhood days are now governed by the constant ticking of the clock and the dates on her diary. I personally needed these 4 years to understand my child and myself as a mother. It seems this is no longer the approach, one needs to take a head-start in life. This modern era requires a family to be fit for a marathon existence. I am discovering that there maybe a way to live in the future while merely surviving the present moment. As I finish writing this, my baby walks upto me and says. mum, lets go to Calcutta in 2 seconds and stay there for 5 hours..... I love a childs sense of time ....as long as it lasts... going by her genes it may last for 37 years...I hope not!!
Posted on: Wed, 30 Oct 2013 12:49:56 +0000
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