Everything I do

Sunitha woke up with a start. It took her a minute to open her eyes wide and glance sideways at her alarm clock. She had beat her alarm by just under a minute. She hurriedly shut it off and stepped off her bed without waking her husband. She entered the kitchen as a light grey dawn was peeping through her kitchen windows. She set the cooker and glanced idly at her calendar on the fridge door. Her face registered a startled look as she glared at the calendar as though it had made some mistake. Belatedly she realized no mistakes were made but she had forgotten an important guest coming for dinner that evening. Her youngest sisterinlaw (Shanthi) had called last week informing Sunitha that her (Shanthi’s) FIL would be visiting them and could Sunitha please host them for dinner. Sunitha had said Yes without any apparent hesitation though she was well aware of the work involved on a weekday. The past weekend had been too busy and she had completely forgotten this matter. Her mind now in a whirlwind of activity as she started making a list off all the things that needed to be done, her hands hurried with making coffee.
She had just enough time to wake her husband, Kannan, and then run behind her sleeping daughter Anju as she helped get Anju ready for school. Meanwhile Kannan had his coffee and headed towards the bathroom to get ready for work.
Anju wanted to know “Why the color of the sky was still grey”, What was amma thinking all the time”, Why did’n t the door bell ring with the arrival of their maid Lakshmi, Why could she not wear the yellow skirt to school, Why was her best friend Ram sick… and the questions endless. Sunitha barely got the kid ready and made her eat breakfast nodding her head without paying any attention to any of the questions.
Anju must have noticed her mothers preoccupation that she kept quiet after a while. Kannan noticing their maids absence busied himself at the kitchen sink as Sunitha got everyone’s lunch boxes ready. Before she knew it she was sitting in her company’s bus still thinking about the evening’s guests. Mentally she checked off her list of things to be done. Her maid not coming had only helped add to the stress and she could barely think of anything else during a very busy work day. There seemed to be some connection with her absent maid and work because nothing went off as planned during the day with numerous problems from the customers, Sunitha somehow just made it home that evening.
As Sunitha picked up Anju from after school daycare, she realized she needed some more items for that evenings dinner so she rushed through ShopFast with Anju in tow. With her mind so preoccupied she failed to notice the very quiet Anju by her side. Kannan came early too that evening and helped get everything ready for the guests. Shanthi’s FIL Balan mama turned out to be a fun person and had so many questions to ask both Kannan and Sunitha which they answered patiently. Finally the guests left very happy and Kannan started cleaning up while Sunitha got Anju ready for bed.
Finally she noticed Anju being quiet and asked “Anju kutty whats up my sweet one”? and turned Anju’s face to her side. Anju’s big brown eyes looked at her mother for a few minutes before she asked quietly “Why don’t you love me amma? . Sunitha was compelely taken aback with this question that for a minute she just stared back at her daughters sad face. Kannan coming from behind heard this and rushed to Anju’s side. “My sweetest baby..How could you say that? Both amma and appa love you so much. You are all we have. We are working hard just for you”.
But Anju continued to look sad and downcast. “If you both love me, why don’t you spend any time at all with me? Why don’t you answer any of my questions? Why didn’t you ask what I did at school today? Why did you answer ALL the questions that Balan mama asked but not any of mine?.All I have ever wanted was to be with both of you but you are always busy with no time for me... With that she turned and walked into her room to sleep and said a small goodnight to her parents still standing shocked by the door.
Sunitha could barely control her tears as she sat in the sofa and Kannan tried to console her saying “Sometimes it gets so busy during the day..we cannot always spend time with Anju”. Sunitha knew that was no excuse at all and so did Kannan. They both realized very quickly they had to do some serious soul searching and decide if this is how they wanted to live their lives. With both parents working full time, they thought they could afford so much more for their kid but in the process had forgotten the child needed love and attention on a daily basis.
Though it was very late when Sunitha and Kannan went to sleep that night, their minds had cleared. They were sad they had overlooked the most important person in their lives and finally made some important decisions together. Sunitha had decided to resign from her very demanding work by the month end and Kannan had decided to forego a promotion that involved more travel time.
They both knew it was a small price to pay for the happiness and closeness that they wanted together as a family. Both knew they would have to sit down later and start a more frugal budget but nothing could overshadow their joy as they knew the quality time that they would finally have to spend with each other and with their beloved daughter too.

 

Ammu dear
Now the trend is for day care's to be open 24/7! and there's demand for that too.. Like you have so well pointed out there are all kinds.. different choices..

 

Dear Venus
You have given such an impressive reply.. and you so rightly say its the balancing..

 

Dear Supriya
The reason I wrote this is because i have been thro all of this in my life.. Though I stay at home, trust me there are so many demands to your time that we cannot always do complete justice.. thats why I wrote.. since it really bothers me that I have so much to do.. sometimes I have to take up tasks to help out either friends or family or volunteer at the local temple.. all these times are taken from family... Its not just for working parents but if we want to do justice to quality time spent with family its tough.. I think.. so I wrote this.. am glad to see the comments.. I actually thought to myself no one's going to have this situation as I do!