Ready to be a Mom? You really think so, huh?                                                                                          

Experts would tell you, you’re more likely to be ‘ready’ to get struck by lightning…

Am I ready to be a mom?

That might sound like the familiar musings of a young woman (who’re we kidding – not so young anymore), not so new into marriage, yet not ready to take the big dive!! (Isn’t it amazing that as we grow older, we get defined by so many more ‘nots’ than ‘sures’, where as shouldn’t it be the other way round? especially when we’re supposed to be building ‘wisdom’? )

This was yet another attempt by the supreme creature called ‘maasi’ (for the uninitiated, maasi means maternal aunt i.e. mom’s sister) – at building the skills, knowledge and real-time experience for the insurmountable task at hand? It was the Challenge of managing dear old faanu (her little niece) for an entire night!

  Helping her along the way was another soldier, her husband – maasu (or so maasi      thought).

   Well how did maasi fare? Let’s find out.

  Good news first. 1. Both Faanu and Maasi survived the night and are alive to tell the  tale!

  Just because I wrote 1, you’re expecting to get more positives? Must say, you really want to know more      or have no experience about kids, which is good use of your time to be reading this article then…

 If you’re not wary or scared, then let me take the pledge to evoke all these emotions in you when I’m    done!

  The night was enough for maasi to figure out how the term ‘maasi’ came about – not because it’s like ‘maa’   (Mother) – but because it almost makes one feel completely mashed up from head to toe…no I    am not talking about the odd weekend visiting, not so hands on maasis…I am talking about a flesh and blood woman, who’s ready to drop guard and get on dirty with some real work!

So how did maasi and faanu fare on unchartered waters? Did the ship sink?

They lasted the night with faanu in bed with maasi, instead of mamma.

That doesn’t mean the talking in sleep and sudden shrieks with incomprehensible gibberish didn’t happen every 15 minutes.

That doesn’t mean there was no pinching of maasi’s face, expecting to find the familiar comfort of mamma’s mole on the chin.

That doesn’t mean there was no sudden flapping of the arms or sudden thrusts of faanu at 360 degrees all over maasi’s body, over and over again.

Nor does it mean that maasi wasn’t relegated to the tiniest corner of the bed that she almost didn’t land up on the floor many times.

Most of all, it means that maasi spent the night lying awake – thinking at 4’0 clock – ‘Why the hell do I want to become a mommy? What on earth would possess me to wish for a state where my days and nights would be turned upside down? When I dreamt of mommyhood, surely it was for the longing of endless soft hugs and kisses and warm love of a child, and not for long sleepless nights, with a high potential of injuring myself and to say goodbye to any semblance of what ‘alone’ time meant!’

This was turning into a graphic portrait of what she didn’t want her life reduced to! And for sure she had real admiration for all mothers and a new found understanding of the phrase ‘I didn’t sleep all night’!

At the deepest level, she wasn’t sure whether to be thankful or angry with her sister for giving her this unsolicited gift of the knowledge/experience of what might lie ahead…was it a blessing or a warning? Maasi’s sentiments were ‘let me save myself, run while I can, because surely if I give this more time, a little brat would be running/ruining my life’.

One often does wonder if maasi ever again had the same wish, or better still would she brave the thought of lasting another night with faanu?

Well, we’ll all need to come back to find out, wouldn’t we?

So have I scared the daylights out of you – of ever wanting to bail out your siblings by babysitting your little niece or nephew…or better still of having kids in general? Yes, Yes. Task accomplished, then!

BTW did I forget to mention how maasi’s life changing night panned out for her husband (maasu)?

Well, he slept like a baby!

   This is our first guest post from “Bhawna Chawla Jain”. Bhawna is an HR professional and  writes  in her leisure time. According to her, she is a married version of a PANK (Professional Aunt, No  Kids). She is learning the ropes of parenting through the babysitting experiences  with her  little niece! We at “twominuteparenting” welcome Bhawna on her first association with us and look forward to more such funny and witty posts from her!

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www.evolve-woman.com

www.thestir.cafemom.com

www.sippycupchronicles.com

www.babysleepsite.com

www.goodreads.com

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