When I thought about becoming a mother, I could only picture having a little girl. I would imagine dressing her up in cute dresses, dungarees and kids blazers. Remember the Ryan Reynolds movie ‘Definitely Maybe’? He had a little girl in that movie named Maya and I always pictured my husband with our little girl talking their hearts out. One of those things, I suppose! I knew there was no way I could control the outcome, but somehow I always wanted a little girl, when and if, at all, I decided to become a mother. Then M was born. 

I now had a little girl to call my own, to be her friend, if possible and to dress her up too anyway I wanted. If only I had stopped to think that my little girl would have a mind of her own. It is one of those things we forget to account for and accept when we become parents. We forget that these little human beings have choices, likes and dislikes of their own and it’s not always a bad thing to let them decide.

Now, my daughter is very particular about the clothes she wears. I, on the other hand, wore what my parents selected without any view about if of my own. But children these days are different. I gradually realised it wasn’t so bad to let my daughter choose while keeping things within our control. 

Even when my daughter was a toddler, she would help me select the clothes I would order for her. And I let her. It’s not to say I bought everything she wanted. I would shortlist and let her select from that. You could say it was a way to see the kind of choices she made in a controlled environment.

Last year during festivals we didn’t buy many clothes due to the pandemic, but we got some for our daughter, of her own choice. She knew she needed a kid’s blazer for her class’s show and tell activities and reminded us to spend in that instead of something she didn’t need. Perhaps, letting her make some of her own choices helped in making her a little responsible.

I was surprised to see she selected a beautiful kid’s blazer from a shortlist of kids blazers online I made for her. She even asked me if the one she chose was too expensive. I have to tell you that really made me happy. In this age of excesses, it is good to see your kid knowing her limits. That’s not to say she doesn’t ask for things all the time, she is a kid after all. But somewhere in her mind, she knows that her parents will only give her as much as necessary and she is okay with that. Well, most of the times.

Who would have thought buying a blazer would turn out to be a lesson of some sort for myself and my kid. But when it comes to parenting, whatever works, right?