Delegate

One weekend I took both the kids to their favorite toy-store. It was on their insistence. They like looking around. I was expecting full blown requests for toys, but both kids were really well-behaved. They played only with the demo toys. The little one did take a while to get the rules, but she too followed suit.

After spending a couple of hours at the store, I decided to buy some small toys for the kids for their good behaviour. I gave them a choice of two toys and they picked one. A bath duck for Siddhi and a babby bottle for Sanju. Sanju's first girly toy of her own choice. In the past she has been gifted baby dolls by people, but they have hardly been played with. She does play with a purse, again a gift, but that too has been a recent thing.

R was a little concerned that we were typecasting the toys we get for the kids. Note, this was the first supposedly girly toy we have bought. Besides, I don't even think its a girl toy. Don't dads need to feed the baby?  Anyways, so once we get home, I find the baby doll which was languishing somewhere in the toy-chest and gave the doll to Sanju who was admiring the baby bottle. Guess what Sanju did next. She promptly asked me to feed the bottle to the baby.

It has been over a week since we got the toys. But Sanju has been delegating the bottle feeding to others. She will order me in her shrill voice, "Mama, baby bottle". And I have to sit and feed the baby the bottle, while she stomps around happily looking for other toys. She tells me where to sit and how to hold the baby as well. And when I am at work, Vicky has been delegated the job.