Love the Devil...

“I want to play video games on my laptop.”

“Not right now. I am working on some important assignment. Once I finish, you can.”

“No, I cannot wait. I am bored and I want to play right now.”

“I said not right now.”

“Why?”

“Because I said so..”

Temporary end of conversation. My son sulks, shrieks a bit and digs into his bed sobbing. I choose to ignore as I am really working on an assignment that I have taken way too long to finish. Besides, there’s one technical reason why I refused him. We have Wi-Fi connectivity at home and I have noticed that whenever he uses the internet on the laptop in his room, the speed of connectivity on my desktop relatively suffers. Well, I am not a techie to figure out the reasons and solutions, I choose to follow what works best for me.

After some time, I hear some screams and loud talks. I decide to take a break from my work and check in on my kids. Both are fighting over a new blackboard and a chalk box that we got over the weekend. Daughter wants to be a teacher while my son refuses to be her student.  I lift him up, puts him on his bed and starts cuddling and tickling him hard. This act has worked in my favour a number of times whenever my kids sulk at me.  He laughs hysterically and urges me to stop…I don’t…he laughs and screams harder. I tell him I shall stop only when he talks to me nicely and hugs me. Instantly, he hugs me and kisses me. His anger is disappeared and we laugh and talk and I try to explain him why he can’t use the internet while I am working. He, at least, shows signs that he understood but I feel that he is more dreadful about another tickling encounter.

While we are indulging in these small talks, I see my daughter standing at the corner of his bed. I pull her and start hugging her, too so that she doesn't feel left out. In the meanwhile, my son sneaks and runs to play his games on my desktop which I don’t mind at that point.

While the daughter is still with me, she looks lost. She is lost in some thought. After much provocation, she asked,” why didn't you allow him to play on laptop? He plays nice video games.” And she goes on to teach me how I should not say no to him whenever he demands to play his games on the laptop. I was pleasantly surprised at the way she was talking to me. She was actually advocating her brother which is quite rare.  She was actually fighting with me for him. While I didn't try much to resist her, I was happy that passing moments are really bringing them together as siblings. They are really growing fond of each other and hurt at each other’s distresses. I was truly happy.

The day just passed by feeling happy and loving my daughter all the more for her lovely gesture. At night, when I tucked her into bed, I whispered in her ears…”I loved the way you fought with me today. I love that you were trying to be nice to your brother and care about him.” She gave me one devilish look and said, ”I wasn't trying to be nice.  When he is playing on that laptop, he leaves me alone and I don’t have to share my blackboard and chalks with him.”

Moral of the story: Don’t underestimate little sisters!

Can you spot that devilish look?