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Straight
Talk
Keeping
up with
your
Kids
Nadia
Barb
“Why
this sudden interest in Frank Lampard? Anyway, who is he in
the first place?" asked my friend whose brain I had been
trying to pick and had failed as she obviously had no idea
who Mr. Lampard was. "He's a football player and not
just any football player, but my son's favourite one."
I replied as if that made it all clear. Still no sign of realisation
dawned on her face. So I proceeded to tell her that I wanted
to be able to have some idea as to what my son was referring
to when he raved about some goal scored by Frank Lampard.
"Are you trying to be super mum?" asked my friend
with a hint of laughter in her voice. Well, not quite super
mum but being super cool mum can't hurt, right?
The reasoning
behind my sudden interest in football is simply that I have
learnt over the years that it is actually nice to be able
to share my children's interests and "obsessions"
with them. As they say, "If you can't beat 'em, join
'em" and I try and do exactly that. Being part of the
female species makes it a little easier for me to relate to
my daughters regarding their thought processes or their choice
of games or toys, well, at least to a certain extent. However,
even that is not quite adequate, especially with times changing
as quickly as they are, and the number of new games and toys
being dangled in front of their eyes via advertisement reaching
dizzying proportions.
If I think
back to when my son was three years old, I have a vague recollection
of trying to memorise the names of as many dinosaurs as I
could. Aged three years, he was already a budding palaeontologist
and his favourite past time was to look through his book of
dinosaurs and name each and every one of them. So as a parent,
when your child asked you to point out a pachycephalosaurus
or tell you the difference between an Allosaurus and a Tyrannosaurus,
you really had to have done your background research thoroughly.
We then graduated to his fascination for cars. Incessant questions
such as "How fast does that car go" or "did
you see that Lamborghini Diablo?", and "Do you know
its top speed?" had me making quick calls to my husband
and running to the computer every now and then saying, "Hold
that thought, I'll be right back." Prior to that, the
only significance of cars was that it should be able to transport
me from point A to point B. Nowadays, whether a car has sports
suspension or regular suspension actually means something
to me!
We went
through the Pokemon phase where even my husband was sucked
into the world of Pikachu and Charmander. Yes, we even played
the board games with the children and went to watch the movies
when they came out. I guess it paid off when our children
would turn around and ask us to verify that a certain pokemon
would actually evolve into A or B pokemon and our answer would
have their friends looking in awe as we were raised to "alright
kind of parents" status. The last few years have seen
me playing Star Wars Bombad Racing on the play station (and
getting quite competitive) or reliving my childhood by watching
reruns of Scooby Doo with my youngest daughter or having Beyblade
battles with all three of them. Just for those who have not
been initiated into the world of Beyblades, they are glorified
spinning tops, very much like our latims or lattoos,
only a very modern version. Oh yes, the Beyblades also have
names! Imagine calling your lattoos "Dragoon" or
"Dranzer".
To be
perfectly honest, it is actually rather enjoyable at times
to put aside your adult worries and day to day activities
and sit with the kids and be a kid for a short time. Finding
joy in the most insignificant of things and laughing at jokes
that at other times would probably have you groaning is a
remarkably refreshing experience. I am still on my mission
to find out more about Frank Lampard and so far I have found
out that he is an attacking mid field player for Chelsea!
Now I have to find out what his favourite colour is and what
he eats for breakfast…
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(R) thedailystar.net 2004
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