What Kind of Memories You Want to Make?

Yesterday, Friday evening, perfect mood, I was cooking yummy food for kids and family as I have not done that in months. Everybody was in a good mood, planning to watch movie. The rules were stated very clearly, by dear hubby, about choosing the movie to watch. All of us agreed, but as expected, my 5 year old started throwing tantrums since his choice of movie didn’t get selected.

My son’s screaming and crying made its way to the peak. I tried to talk, didn’t work. Dad yelled back at him, got worst. Sister wanted to talk, he would not listen. At that very moment, the biggest dilemma that we were fighting was, sister didn’t want him to cry but at the same time we can’t pick his movie since he lost the voting and the toss. In addition to that, she didn’t want my husband or me to say anything to him. I am sure, most of the household go through these kinds of episodes every now and then.

At last, we said, “Go I-G-N-O-R-E rule”. We can’t say that word in front of my son, we have to spell it out; he doesn't know spelling of ignore yet, phew!

Amidst all this chaos, my daughter got very agitated and questioned,

“Why he is throwing tantrums? Why he has to do that all the time?”

Then she continued, “I never threw tantrum when I was a kid”.

“Dear, you did too!” I revealed for the first time.

All what was happening was overwhelming enough. So I decided to talk to her.

I said, “When you were of his age, you would become grumpy many times. Severity of your tantrums was only teensy-weensy less than what he is doing right now. Then I shared couple of the small incidents of her tantrums with her”.

“But mom, why did you never tell me that before?” she questioned with her eyes wide open in surprise.

My husband and I answered her question in another question, coincidentally at the same time, “What kind of memories you want to make?”

Then I continued, “In life, we will always face good and bad times, happy and sorrowful moments, fun and boring experiences. It is up to us what kind of memories we want to make. We chose to always remember good things that life brought to us with you. Those tantrums weigh too low compared to the joy that your smile and sweet talks brought in our world.”

Immediately, she gave dad and mom a big giant hug. Then we waited quietly for about 40 minutes till my son settled down.

After that we made one more happy memory with bunch of cuddles, kisses and by watching a movie based on a story that mommy read them a while ago.

What kind of memories you want to make?