Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Parenting 101 gone awry


It was 10 minutes to 1pm and I was nagging Amri and Adam to hurry up and get inside the car. Amri to school and Adam to daycare. School started at 1.05pm and Amri had the tendency to wander off all over school before he actually arrived at his classroom. So needed to go earlier to satisfy that wanderlust. However, Adam was nowhere to be seen. I yelled for him but no one turned up. Checked his room and bathroom, he wasn't there. Not in guest room either. Checked my room and heard him singing from my bathroom. The door was locked. Asked him to come out because I needed to send Amri right now. He refused. I asked why. Because he didn't want to go to daycare. Promised him an ice cream if he come out now. He said no, thank you. Threaten to leave him home alone. He said, okay....bye! It was 1.02pm and I had no choice. Locked the door and leave a word with next door maid to keep an ear out for Adam. Sent Amri to school.

I was back 5 minutes later and found a dining chair near front door and Adam inside downstairs bathroom doing his big business. Asked Adam what the chair was doing there. He said, he wanted to take the keys to open the front door (plus grill) and go cycling but he needed to take care of his big business first. And could ibu please come in and wash his bottom because he was done now. I was speechless.

After putting his short pant on, Adam continued his interrupted activity. I simply watched because I needed to know how far could he go with the complicated lock and key. Amri was 5 when he figured out how to unlock that padlock. Adam was a bit advance I guess. He managed to unlock after a few minutes while singing Alif, Ba, Ta.... Somehow I got a feeling that this was not his first time.

Having succeeded the front door, he then proceeded for the gate. Which was easy peasy. It was auto gate and the switch was right beside the door. Since he was already standing on a chair, opening the gate was never a problem. Having passed his hurdles, he put the padlock and key properly on nearby coffee table and drag the dining chair back to its place. Grab his bicycle and went off. I allowed him a few minutes before putting my foot down and told him to get back inside the house. Lucky for me, it started to drizzle and Adam hurried back inside.

I was having pretty mixed feeling. First, proud that Adam was so brave staying alone, independant with his toilet business and clever with the locks. Second, scared of what would happened if I were to take longer than 5 minutes. What if Amri's school was 15 minutes away? what if Adam didn't need to answer nature's call? What if there was a fire? Or he slipped in the bathroom, or he could fell from the chair (well..that one happened everyday).

But still, a little bit of revamping is needed here. Say...a more complicated door access system? A combination of pin number and retina scanning maybe. A guard outside the gate? A key to all bathroom perhaps. Or just locked the keys in a safebox. Orang lain simpan jewelry, kita simpan keys :)

I couldn't help but felt a bit amazed at how Adam did his strategic planning. Of all the place in the house, he hide in my bathroom. The only place without key. Once locked from inside, there was no way I could enter, unless I wanted to try the old U days trick...use a card. But that was time consuming and I was not about to sacrifice my credit card.

While I am typing this entry, Adam was playing alone happily in his room. Singing, no less. And sticking Amri's dragonball stickers on his bedroom door. I bet Amri would be fuming mad when he get back from school this evening :)

No comments: