It has been a long tiring day today so keeping this gratitude post short. Today, I am grateful for being recognized as Hari’s mom.

After a break of two years, our high school hosted its first debate tournament. It’s a fairly significant event with over 400 students and adults. Being Hari’s last year in school and given how debate is such a big part of his life, I wanted to be a part of it in some form or the other. Initially, I signed up to drop breakfast and lunch but could not resist the pull to judge rounds.  

I love volunteering to judge debate tournaments. I don’t know if it’s the sight of these young adults dressed in formals. Or that this is a highly intellectual pursuit. Or just the fact that the experience challenges me to be fully present and practice good listening. 

I wish I had gained enough experience to be able to provide constructive feedback to debaters that I judge. A lost opportunity due to covid. But that’s something I didn’t have control over. All I can do is make the most out of what is left. So I am grateful that I got to do this today. I enjoyed chatting with parents from other schools. I loved listening to the arguments and seeing them be civil and courteous to each other. I loved seeing my child parade the school halls with a sense of belonging doing what he loves. 

I am forever thankful that debate has been Hari’s passion in high school. Debate has connected him to so many like minded friends here in his high school and beyond. It has taught him valuable life lessons – time management, hard work, ability to research and think on his feet, to be a confident presenter, to strike up conversations with strangers, and to accept and bounce back from failures.  He has poured his heart and soul into debate and it has served him well in return. What’s not there to love about this? 

Parenting trains you to be efficient with your tasks and routine since there is always a lot going on at a point of time. Very soon you learn that it is best to stick to grocery shopping once a week. That once I step out of the house, complete all the errands. Better to grind Idli, dosai batter on Thursday or Friday to squeeze some downtime during the weekend. 

To some, this may seem like boredom. To me, this is freedom. It frees up mind space and time for finer things in life. Grateful for this practice. 

Acting silly, being goofy,and some harmless teasing are far more effective in getting the job done than launching into a torrent of words. Grateful for this valuable lesson that parenting has taught me.

Today, my heart is full of gratitude for Hari’s pediatrician. 

I started working when Hari was seven months old. We enrolled him in a group daycare, which meant the child was constantly sick with cold, cough and ear infections. By his second year, he had developed ear infections so frequently that he was considered a candidate for ear tubes. 

I remember standing in the specialist office with tears streaming down my cheeks. Every fiber in my being was writhing in guilt. I could not shake the feeling that I brought this on Hari. If I didn’t work, he wouldn’t have gone to daycare, which meant he wouldn’t have become sick this often. How am I going to get him out of it? Why am I just not able to walk away from my job? 

We went back to our pediatrician with the recommendation. The pediatrician gave us a life line. She suggested that we wait it out. Spring was around the corner. Kids do turn around at this age. If the pattern repeats, then we would take care of it the following winter. Thankfully, the gamble paid off. The second winter at the daycare was so much more smoother and he ended up not having ear tubes. 

We have stuck to the same pediatrician for Hari inspite of moving several towns away. She probably does not realize what a big role she has played in our lives. So very thankful for the chance she took on Hari. I am not sure who needed that more – Hari or I.

With a preteen and teen at home, food occupies a big part of our lives. There is so much anticipation around it. What’s for dinner? What’s special this Thursday? Can you make waffles? 

As a little kid, Hari has eaten all possible junk food. From six months to a year, he lived on Gerber jar food. Then came the whole gamut of processed food – pop tarts, kozy shack rice pudding, frozen waffles, honey nut cheerios, rice cakes, crunchy noodles, so on and so forth. 

Oh my… how ignorant was I? How desperate were we? Hari was constantly sick the first year he went to daycare. He weighed so low for a while that he was off the charts. All we wanted was for him to eat so he would gain weight. 

Thankfully, like the flip of a switch, his eating habits improved drastically once he started going to school. And thankfully, I too matured as someone who was in charge of meals. Somehow the pieces started falling in place.

It always amazes me how much happiness a meal of their choice brings. If happiness is such a low hanging fruit, there is no excuse for not plucking it!