It's all about The Fun

Saturday, we took the kids to the SJ Children’s Museum. We reached at 12.30 and stayed till closing time. The kids were over stimulated. Samar and Neil ran around like headless chickens. They didn’t know what to play with first. Their favourite was the water play and Bubbles station.

It was kinda crowded but manageable. I had 2 and Nk managed the other 2.  Finally, Neil, Avasha and I went upstairs where they had an art room, a Ages Under 4 room. The kids decided to play with these really cool stacking blocks. Neil sat down and made this structure. Just as he was to put his finishing piece,a child came out of nowhere and broke his tower. He was shocked, didn’t say anything. He didnt hit or shout or  scream. He just picked up the pieces and tried to rebuild the tower.

I was standing right beside him. The mother of that child, didn’t do a a single thing. That girl wasn’t a baby,she was a 3.5 yr old girl. All she did was say, Net Net(which is the only Russian word I know because I watched  Mera Naam Joker) Barely 10 minutes later, that devil came by and hit his tower again. This time, I jumped up but before I could do/say anything, the girl in the purple shirt(in the picture below) came by and told her, NO That’s Not Nice. Say you are sorry. That teenager said it twice. But the mom didn’t do anything. She then helped Neil find all his pieces. Again ,she told that child to say sorry but neither that child nor the mom didnt do anything. Then I thought okay maybe her mom doesn’t speak English, I will cut her some slack. That changed when the mom finally opened her mouth and said, Oh she is 3.5 and never really listens to me. OMG. I just gave her a a frown. She then hurriedly picked her devil child up and left.

The teenager then came by and said, I am sorry for that. I said dont be.It wasnt your fault. She then asked “what would you want as a parent, when should we get involved”. I said I think what you did was really good. I kinda expected the mom to make the child say sorry. She did it 2-3 times and the mom just kept saying NO.

The teen said its tough to know when to intervene and when to let the kids work out stuff themselves. She then remarked, what a nice guy Neil is. I said, “he isnt always like that. What if he threw a block back at that girl. What would the mom have done then? Or you? What would you have done?”

She then just gave me a smile and left.The nice thing about this place was they had tons of people working. In the upper portion, the ratio was probably 1:5 kids. They kept an eye out for the kids and really made sure no one got into trouble.We got a family membership and would probably go again.

PS:The header is from the Alice in Wonderland exhibit. The boys had a tea party and then sta at this vanity and played with the pretend dress up stuff. NK was so proud.