An Evening Walk

I picked up my daughter from a daycare. I was tired from the work but satisfied. I had been working on a consulting project for past two months - drowning in the influx and outflux of files. And my hard work had finally paid off. Caught up in the web of project, I had not given sufficient time to my six year old daughter, Rose . Today , I had decided to devote the whole evening to her. But destiny had some other plans for me. Due to some construction work going on, we had to deboard earlier and walk some distance. It was a beautiful, sunny day. But I was still grudging.

I asked Rose, “So, how was your day at school?”

Rose answered haltingly, “ We played a game. Teacher asked all of us what do we want to become when we grow up?”

“So what did you reply? “ I was hoping that she would say architecture, though somewhere I knew she liked being a film star better.

“I told my teacher I wanted be a child when I grow up.”

I was confused. A child? “Not a lawyer, architecture or a film star.” I tried to understand her reasoning.

“No mom. I just want to be a child when I grow up. . .

Because if I become someone else, I would not be able to laugh and stay natural like me. I would have to work day and night. And if I get time on holiday I would have to spend it on either phone or laptop.

There would be no time for my Dolls and Teddy's...

no time for my small Kitchen and Home Set decorations...

no time for my swings at children's park and catching butterfly or birds ...

And I would forget to notice beautiful things also. So, I would like to become a child when I grow up so that I should continue playing with mud in the park and with water in the bathroom. That ways can be grown up and happy as well”, she stubbornly insisted.

I was speechless, I was wondering if I talking to my six years old daughter? What made her so mature? Do I lost my innocent connection with my daughter?And when did me and my husband lost our happiness and laugh? I tried to remember the last time when we had gone for a family walk. I couldn’t remember. Probably, somewhere in the past we had grown old.

Rose’s words and her innocence brought me back to earth, “So, Mom, are you spending the whole day with me? Are we going to park now? What are the plans.”

I lifted my daughter, grabbed her in my arms and kissed her forehead “I guess we are going straight to park for an evening walk…and on coming weekend we shall go for a theme park with daddy!