Tuesday 23 June 2015

umm - mum mum and more

I get "you're STILL nursing?" quite a bit. K is 25 months old and latched on for good (PP often comforts me, saying that she might just wean before it's time for college) I don't complain (not really, not excepting my routine five times a day - but then I like to whine, so it's ok)

Despite the downsides - the occasional bout of incessant nursing, inevitable biting, and the twiddling / tweaking (which I loathe), the sudden tugging at top in public) there ARE benefits to nursing a toddler for a mom. I am not even getting into the benefits for the child: nutrition, health and bonding. Those are a given. 

The first of them is pure entertainment:

Witness K taking a break from nursing to explore what the dog is eating, deciding that it's not interesting enough for her to try and eat and running back to find that Ma has hurriedly yanked down her t-shirt and is trying to work on her report. K, wearing the kind of smile that adults do when acknowledging a piece of mischief by a child, pokes around inside the t-shirt: मम - मम, कहाँ हो? ओह, यहाँ घुस के बैठे हो? बाहर आओ, एक बात बतानी है| (Trans: mum-mum, where are you? Oh, are you hiding here? Come out, I have something to say to you.) She then proceeds to share her philosophy of life and toys with the mum-mums.

The second is an object lesson in how you have been born solely to cater to a little dictator:
Mamma, यह वाला मम मम चाहिए, Mamma वो वाला मम मम चाहिए. Mamma ऊपर से पीना है, नीचे से चाहिए. Mamma ठीक से मम मम पीना है न. (Trans: Mamma, I want this mum mum. Mamma, I want that mum mum. Mamma I want to drink from the top [of the t-shirt] Mamma, I want it from the bottom [ this means, pull the tee up]. Mamma, I want to feed properly.

The third is weight maintenance:
Let me tell you about amount of thick cream (from my mom's cows) and jaggery that I consumed with plump round chapatis; or the endless rounds of kachori-sabzi, jalebi, lassi, paalak ki chaat, golgappas, tamaatar ki chaat, dahi vada, kulfi that I had this summer in Banaras. Fortunately, it doesn't show too much, because my lil' milk monster siphons most of it off.

There are actually lots more benefits: but these happen to be my favourites... what're yours?

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