I once wondered aloud what I , the hands-on and albeit authoritative mom , will be doing , once the kids are grown. I mean…those kids, Bunny and Kajune ; they are our (hubby and I) LIFE. See, they have been part of our ALL our grown up lives. They are our joy, our inspiration…and their laughter and flattering words are our solace when things are not going right.

“Utakuwa unapanick eti sijakula , sijalala…” , came my husbands toungue-in-cheeck reply. And we had a LOL (LOL is in the Oxford dictionary now, no?) moment, imagining how with our girls grown up and away from home, I’d be panicking that he had not had dinner , slept in time etc.

Early this month, I was travelling. Destination? Asia. OK I was going to India…but it sounds better when you say you are going to Asia…..sounds like you are going on vacation or something. 🙂

As usual I had been hinting to the girls for weeks , that I am gonna go away for a while but I’ll be back. They asked lots of questions, as expected. It seems obvious, but kids want to be sure you’ll actually come back! Kajune was concerned that I would miss her birthday (I did but daddy stood in for me in an amazing way, thanks darl).

Come D-Day and I was all packed, ready to go. Hubby was dropping me to the airport and I knew the girls would love to tag come along.

Earlier in the day, I had ignored the urge to call my good neighbor and friend and cancel the play date the girls were to have that afternoon, with her kids. See , being the democratic mom , I am teaching myself to be , I had allowed a measly 5% chance that my kids would actually opt to go ahead with their play date , rather than seeing me off.

Shock on me. I had my ratios the other way round.

“Who is taking mommy to the airport?”, I asked excitedly.

“Ummm..”

“I asked who is ready to go with mommy to the airport?”

Silence.

“OK, do you want to take mommy to the airport?”

Bunny, the elder one, putting on her loyal hat says, “What if , one of us takes you to the airport and the other one goes to akina Roland?”

“Me! I’ll go to akina Roland , and Bunny will take you!” , offers Kajune. 😛

“Okay , let’s do this…do you want to go to take mommy to the airport or to to akina Roland?”

“We go to akina Roland!” , they chorused.

What?! I could not believe it. But I didn’t show it.

So , it came to pass that , I saw them off to our neighbor , that sunny afternoon, and hugged them goodbye.

“Bye , mom!” they said cheerfully.

And right there I learnt my lesson. Nothing says a mind of their own than my girls preferring to go on a play date than seeing me off to the airport. I mean , they clearly understand I am gonna be away for a whole two weeks , right? They do! But thing is… I am no longer their oxygen. They can do stuff without me…

They are no longer mommy’s little babies. They are young girls. They serve themselves at dinner and dress themselves for school. They give ultimatums (“Don’t tell us we’ll go one day ; tell us we’ll go next Saturday” , they demand of their swimming treats). They choose to go on play dates instead of just tagging along with mommy..

At the airport , the hug was longer and tighter , lacking in a backdrop of two giggling girls.

“Babe , (for once in a long time) , it feels like it’s just the two of us.”