Take your child to work...

...or not.

My office had a " take your child to work day" yesterday. Most activities were tailored for kids 7-13 yrs of age, but on my admin insisting that it would be " cool" to bring sonali in for lunch, I decided to take her in.

I took her in the morning under the assumption that its only a few hours until lunch and she will be very excited seeing new faces, new gadgets and so on. Everytime I make an assumption about my daughter these days, she finds a way to disprove it. She did very well this time too. To begin with, she would not look at anyone or talk to anyone. A cheerful " hi cutie" was met with a sideward glance in the opposite direction and dead silence. Needless to say, the cheerful HIs stopped after a while.

I gave her a piece of paper and some crayons and put her on a chair near mine at my desk. She was excited and so was I. It lasted for exactly 7 minutes. Then I gave her an unused keyboard and some tissue paper and my daughter got very busy wiping down the keyboard, then my desk, then my mouse, then the keyboard I was using and finally she wanted to clean my nose with the same tissue. No she did not give me a choice.. I had to oblige.

She was bored again after her cleaning spree. So I put the headphones on her and opened a tiny window and started playing some youtube rhymes for her. She sang along with them, without a care in this world. I had to go around apologizing to the folks I share my cube with. Once she figured the headset was too much work and much less fun, she removed it and tried to see if she can break it. So off we went to find something else to do.

I walked around with her a few times, got her back to my desk and put her on the chair again. She stood up in the chair almost immediately , bent down a little and a few seconds later, I heard her voice LOUD and clear : " Amma, Poop". Yes yes, its one of the mistakes of potty training I know!. Anyways, I told not to worry and that I will change her once we get some lunch. She was quiet for a couple of seconds and again went : " Amma Poop, poop, thonu poop ". only louder this time, as if I dint get her message the last time. I think even the guy is the remote corner office heard her.

Now the worst part was that I forgot her diaper bag at home, so I decided to head out and forget lunch. As I was walking out, I saw lunch come in and I was once again coaxed into taking a bite. So I sat there and took the first piece of pizza and started feeding my daughter.

I sat her down in a chair in some empty cube and as I give her the food, she promptly spits it out. As i bend down to clean it, she takes the receiver from the phone and wraps it around herself and starts giggling. She is very surprised I am not smiling at this point, so she does it again to see if I get it this time!!. Then she stands up in the chair and loses balance and starts to fall down. I manage to catch her in time but I could not stop the tears or the loud wailing. Once again the remote corner office guy knows my daughter is hurt.

After some calming down, we go back to eating pizza. This time, she wants to feed herself and since all parenting rules say you got to teach ur kid to be independent, i let her have the plate. She simply took the plate, turned it upside down and dropped everything on the floor. Mommy cleans again, gets a new plate some more pizza and more of the spitting follows. I give up and decide to take her back to her daycare.

As we walk out, she goes : " Poop amma" again and this time also pointing to her back ( Like I dint know where it came from)!! I was so exhausted by noon and felt like I gave birth all over again.

So really, don't let people talk you into being " cool" and bringing your 22 month old to work - especially if it even remotely resembles mine!

Oh and the remote corner office guy is our Vice President. I'll let you know if I have a job on Monday!