Case of being a kid, 500 girl friends and sparing the rod

This thanksgiving weekend was by far the most enjoyable one I have had in my 4 years here in the US. One of my relatives had come down from Atlanta to Orlando and had invited me for the long weekend.

I did not realize how good being a kid (at heart) was until I met my relative's 2 kids - 7 and 3 years old. I am not sure if it was because they were extremely small (in size) or I was way too big for them, they took an instant liking for me, and vice versa.

Of course, we went to the parks - Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios - it did not matter where we went. The first thing which struck me was how many things we (as adults) fail to notice in our day-to-day lives, which the kids so beautifully bring to our notice. The same theme park which I have seen with friends of my age group looked and sounded so different when I was in the company of kids. It was fun to watch them squeal with delight when some of the cartoon characters walked past or when they screamed in primal fear during the Jurassic park ride or when they showed false fear when I went about crushing their bones (not really!) or when they ordered all the food at the restaurant and ended up only eating from my plate!.

No wonder everyone wishes to go back to their childhood, given a chance. It is amazing that we all crossed that age and are now what we are - serious and formal. In my opinion, either be a kid forever (a pipe dream), or be in the company of kids once in a while, which can be very rejuvenating.

That being said, kids can embarrass you to any extent. I had to answer so many questions which I thought I would never be asked by anyone. One of them was how many girl friends I had - I said 500 (yea right!). Not missing a heart beat, the next question was, who among them did I like the most!. I was left gasping for breath, desparately trying to distract them to other topics.

Now, this topic is touchy. Have today's parents completely forgotten about "adi odha udhavura maadhiri annan thambium udhavaamaataan" proverb?. I mean, during my stay, there were atleast 20 situations where the kids ought to have been disciplined. It doesn't have to be beatings, but a firm punishment of some sort was definitely deserved. After all, they are kids and treating them is in many ways akin to re-inforced learning - reward for good behavior (and thereby encourage similar ways of actions) and punishing for bad behavior (thus discouraging them to repeat the same). So the fault is not with the kids - they are just adapting/evolving. But they have to be given some tough love sometimes. Brats are not born, they are created.

All being said, it was very sad to leave them and come back. In fact, I had to lie to them that I would stay the next day too, but woke up early in the morning and silently slinked away into the pre- dawn darkness. I had to use the windshield wiper to remove the dew formed and my fingers to flick some kind of salty discharge formed in my eyes. Funny!. I wonder what that was about.

PS: Off topic - Maybe I should also start a tag - a tag to stop ALL other tags. Whoever gets tagged would be relinquished of tagging duties hereafter!. Say-no-to-tag.
I am tagging:
1. Slashaalvaar
2. Maverick
3. Naikutti
4. Vatsan.
As with all other tags, it is upto the taggee(!) to continue it or leave it. In the future if any of the say-no-to-taggers get tagged by some other blogger, they may very well make their point by referring to this tag!. A rather diplomatic way of declining to tag!. Just my way of abusing the right to freedom of speech!.