"Why hasn't she gone to the school?" My dad almost shouted at my paternal aunt, who was our caretaker as both my parents were working.My aunt,who was scared of my father as the rest of us,squealed "she's not feeling well." My father looked at me again as I struggled to change sides due to illness and left the room without asking any more questions.
I'm the youngest of four daughters of my parents.My father was a head master of a govt. school and as well as at home. He would never take off from working unless he was physically unable to move and would expect the very same thing from all of us including my mother.He was never a filmy kinda father who would care for his children during some emotional outbursts or simply when they needed some care and affection. He always maintained some kind of a distance from all of us.My mother on the other hand,was also a working woman- a teacher in a govt. school, would always have lesser time for us as opposed to the non-working mothers but would still try to cater to our needs.(Now that I think of that,I feel I didn't take up any job after becoming a mother was because of her limited time for family) .It mostly used to be my older sisters who would pamper me a lot and take care of me whenever I fell ill.All three of them had amazing amount of maternal skills! I had no complaints till recently.I was sure it was a very normal middle-class family conditions of 80s and 90s.
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| Taken when Neil was a li'l over a month old! |
My son was not well last week and then he fell ill with terrible cold with the beginning of this week and believe me,it's not just these two weeks! Whenever he's fallen ill,I have noticed a wonderful thing that makes me envy my own son! Yes indeed,I'm talking about his dad! I feel surprised at how much this man does for his son.He puts his son on his chest (because Neil has a breathing problem due to a lot of phlegm) and sleeps on a bean bag(not even a couch or bed) all night,he sacrifices watching cricket to keep watching rhymes because it soothes his son,the moment he hears him crying over the phone he comes home earlier than I could have asked for. He prefers to sleep next to him and wakes up at the slightest noise he makes.It's endless....!!!!!!
I'm sure most of the fathers now are like this but for me who was raised very conventionally,it surprises me even more because I haven't seen even my BILs doing any of this.And that's why I'm very jealous of my son but I love my husband even more as a father :-)
