Storeroom

I don't remember whether I was fascinated by storerooms when i was young.

But Ace SURE is VERY fascinated by them.

For the past few days, he has been bugging me to open the storeroom door for him.

No matter where I am, what I am doing, he will run to me, hold my hand, pull me towards the storeroom and tell me, "Mama, open..."

Because we are so afraid he will go in climb here and there and fall down, we locked the door.

"Cannot leh, Ace, it is locked.." I tell him and demo to him that no matter how I turn, the knob cannot turn.

And then he runs to the Gohonzon table, takes out a key and say, "Suo shi..." and then tries to put the key into the keyhole. If he cannot do it, he asks me to do it.

Anyway, the ending is that I will tell him that I cannot open the storeroom for him and then he will cry, roll on the ground and look so sad. If he repeats this stunt too many times, I will ignore him..

Until the point I cannot take his NOISE anymore, I will try to use something else to distract him and then tell him that crying does not solve matters... and sometimes we cannot always get what we want.

The other day, he made me really angry.

I opened the storeroom 3,4 times for him and each time took out a different toy to play with him.


We played together for about 1 hour plus and then I told him we had to keep our toys... and he happily helped me keep all the toys.

Just as I locked the door though, he started to do the stunt of crying and asking me to open again. And then he cried and rolled on the floor.

So I pretended to be like him and cried and rolled on the floor... seeing me do that agitated him furthur and he came and hit me all over...

I held his hands tight and scolded him..."Ace, are you beating mummy? Are you a good boy? Do good boys beat their mothers? You were crying what, I am just learning from you.. crying to show you how you look like... If you don't like me to cry, I also don't like you to cry. Ok? I already played with you and opened the storeroom a few times today. That is all. If you want to play, we play tommorrow."

"Mama angry..." he said.

"Yes, I am angry.. do you know why? Because Ace keeps crying over nothing. If you are sad, I will let you cry and cuddle you. Now you are crying to get your way and that is not right. So mama is angry. So will you stop now? Ok?"

"Ok..."

"And for beating people, you have to stand in the corner for 1 minute."

And 5 minutes later, he forgot every single word I said and started crying again.. "Ace!" And I sat on the sofa and fold my arms.

"Mama angry..." he immediately quieten down.

"Yes, I am angry.. do you know why? Because Ace keeps crying over nothing. If you are sad, I will let you cry and cuddle you. Now you are crying to get your way and that is not right. So mama is angry. So will you stop now? Ok?"

And 5 minutes later, he forgot every single word I said and started crying again..

This time I got really angry and folded my arms and said nothing.

"Mama angry..."

I ignored him.

And then he tried to act cute and come and grin and tilt his head to make me laugh.

And still I kept quiet...

Then after a while, I told him in a quiet, quivering voice (cos i was feelings lots of emotions).

"Ace, whatever you want, Mama do my best to give you. Be it a toy, or food.. whatever you want, I already do my best. But sometimes mama cannot give everything that you want. I already give you all my heart and my love... can you appreciate that or not?"

"Appreciate" he said...

And viola! No more crying for the storeroom.. phew...

So I guess when you tell your kids what you really feel. They do understand you know ;)

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