Monday, October 17, 2016

Obsessive parents come in many forms

My daughter is growing up. Really fast.

I feel time is slipping right through my fingers as I struggle to absorb every bit of her growing up process. This is evident in the way she develops independence around her tasks- from constantly seeking company earlier to now being able to pretend play by herself; from wanting to be dressed to now dressing on her own and developing an acute sense of combination between top and bottom wear; from being completely disinterested in food and oblivious of what's being fed to developing a keen knack for some flavors, enquiring what's for dinner and expressing clearly what she'd like to eat.

I see the same evolution in a very pronounced way with her language development. She does not speak any of our mother tongue (mine or Ajith's) but speaks really good English. She says things I think are fancy for her age, that catch me off-guard, like - 'my neck in aching' (not paining :O), 'papa are you kidding me?',' don't bother me', 'this is too complicated', 'did my teacher validate if I was a good girl', 'Pati i want to remain mute with those kids' etc.

However, there are some pretty basic English phrases she says all wrong.
For example- If I ask her, 'Taanu did you talk during circle time?', she says, 'No'.
Then I ask, 'Are you sure?', she says, 'No', though she means- 'Yes, I am sure'. In her mind she is reading the 'Are you sure?' as a repeat of the first question.
I have noticed her do this consistently and never bothered to correct her. In my mind, this is a quirk from her baby vocabulary that I cherish. Until one day recently, I said, 'Are you sure' and she answered- 'yes' losing that piece of babyism I was relishing.

Another example is when she's showing us something, she says, 'Papa, look at' and points at the object, never completing her statement with a 'that' or anything more. It's always just 'Look at' and a finger pointed! We have always noticed her speaking this way and I have found it rather amusing. Yesterday at Target when she said the same thing, her dad started teaching her how  the sentence is incomplete and how she needs to add a 'that' or more to I found myself thinking panic-stricken, 'No, no, let her say it wrong, I like how it's so her style!'

Another small example is the way she says the phrase, 'My own'. If you hear carefully you'll notice she always says, 'Myrown' and not 'My own'...

It's amusing even to me how I notice and hold on to these small quirks of hers hoping she retains it. I hold myself in my tracks thinking I am probably turning obsessive, specially because I have one child but I don't seem to want to let her grow up and grow out of these. As a mother here I am promoting her speaking a language wrong over wanting to fix it and up-skill her language wise. Is that me showing signs of obsessive parenting in obsessing over my her babyhood?

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