Mommy, I don't want to bathe...

“Akriti, you know this isn’t going to work out. Going to school without bathing isn’t going to help. Stop your tantrums and get yourself a good wash,” Kiran almost shouted at her daughter.

“Mommy, I don’t want to bathe. It’s so cold. What’s wrong in not taking a bath?” the five year old kiddo replied. She, ofcourse, was unaware of the perks of bathing.

“No arguments, no questions. You are bathing and coming out in the next fifteen minutes,” her mother ordered.

“Hunny, what happened?” Rajat had just woken up from a deep slumber and was in no mood to hear the regular tiff of Mom and daughter.

Kiran wasn’t in the best of her temper and so replied getting all irritated, “Your daughter…she’s making me go crazy all day.”

“As if, she isn’t yours..”Rajat smirked and then smiled. One out of the two had to be in control in the family.

“I’m not in a state to handle your humour.”

She was angry, it was pretty more than obvious now.

“Okay, first of all, sit down and take a deep breath,” he came close to her and gave her a glass of water. “Now tell me, why is there so much of hullabaloo every morning between you two?”

“This girl, she just doesn’t listen to me. Every morning, I have to screech and shout, just to make her bathe. She simply doesn’t understand the importance of bathing. She’ll fall ill if she doesn’t imbibe good habits. And as a parent, it is my responsibility to teach her good habits,” she replied sadly. It was evident she was confused about the step that should be taken to make her child understand the advantage of bathing.

“Relax, you know this is what children do. It’s their tendency to not do what their parents instruct them. Akriti is no different, unless she knows the repercussions of the same, she won’t understand why you are after her all day,” Rajat tried to cool down his wife.

“C’mon, every day I tell her that if she doesn’t bathe then she’ll be itching all day with sweat and catch infections. But who listens to me?”

“Kiran, you remember the cashewnut story we were told by her grandmas?” Rajat asked Kiran.

Her expressions depicted that she was quite perplexed so she asked, “Which one?”

“Ohho! There was this kid who used to love eating cashew nut and would just not listen to his Mom when asked to stop eating too much of it,” Rajat started telling a story he had been told a hundred times.

“And?” asked Kiran. She always had a habit of interrupting with ands and buts. May be, that was her way to tell people that she was paying attention.

“And then one day, he ate a lot of them in the absence of his mother. When she returned, he came running to her crying and said, ‘I am sorry Mom, I didn’t pay heed to your advice and now, my stomach hurts too bad due to having so much of cashew nuts.’ This story not only made the boy understand the repercussions of having too much of cashew nuts but he also learnt to listen to his parents’ advice,” Rajat concluded.

“So should we make her realize the same the hard way?” Kiran asked.

“We will have to, we never understand the pros and cons of a particular situation unless we face it ourselves. You know she’ll also get to listening to so many things she generally ignores when instructed by you,” Rajat said thoughtfully.

“May be but I do hope she doesn’t have to face the wrath at her school,” Kiran said. She didn’t want her angel to go through any problems at school.

“Don’t worry,” Rajat hugged her tight. He knew his wife was worried.

Later that afternoon, Akriti came back from school and the first thing she said was, “Mommy, I love you.”

“I love you too, my little angel. How was school, today?” Kiran asked pulling her cheeks. She had acquired those chubby cheeks from her Dad. Kiran had almost gone back to her school days when she had first met Rajat.

“Mommy, I wanna take bath,” Kiran was woken up from her thoughts by Akriti’s voice.

‘What on earth, had happened to this girl?’ Kiran thought. This was such a big change in Akriti’s attitude but she was happy. Kiran got up to get clothes for her daughter from the wardrobe.

“Mom, I like this thing. Please switch it on. I like bathing in hot water instead of this cold water in the morning,” Akriti pointed towards Racold Instant water heater.

Kiran had never seen her daughter enjoy so much while bathing. It was quite evident she was having fun. She played in the water tub with her Mom and with all the toys they had specially got for her so that she enjoys the whole process. Sadly, her daughter had always avoided bathing although somehow, things were a little different that day. She didn’t know what miracle had happen with her but she was happy that finally, her daughter had understood her Mom’s concern.

Later at night, Kiran saw a card made by her sweet little daughter awaiting at the study table. She smiled as she read the words ‘To the world’s best Mommy’

It was 11 p.m. and Kiran and Rajat were lying silently on bed.

“You know what happened today?” Kiran told Rajat.

“What?”

“Akriti herself went to freshen up after coming back from her. In fact, she even asked me to turn on the instant water heater. I don’t what brought this sudden change in her,” Kiran said smiling.

Rajat came close and hugged her. His wife was happy that their daughter had finally taken the right path and Rajat was happy to see both the females he loved the most were happy. Little did she know that Rajat had told the same story along with some additions about bathing to his daughter while dropping her to school in the morning. He was also happy about the fact that his daughter didn’t have to go through that #WhatsThatSmellBoss phase.

P.S: This post has been written as an entry for the contest on Indiblogger conducted by Racold Instant Water Heater