Will 'tomorrow' ever come?

Children today grasp things very easily and are able to make us think about the little things in life which have a lot of significance.

As a parent we are constantly asked “Ma/Pa can I buy this?” or “Please, can I have this?” followed by cries or temper tantrums. If it is deserving of course we would get it but if it is not, we try and get away from buying it by saying “maybe tomorrow” or “another day.”

I have two sons aged six and four. We went to the pharmacy recently and my second son asked me to buy him lip gloss which both my husband and I refused. But to keep him from crying I told him I would buy it “tomorrow” because reasoning with him that it is for girls and not suitable for him or anyone his age wouldn't work at that particular moment of time.

Naturally, we did not buy it for him the next day, either. Two days later, he wanted to play in the water much longer during bath time but I told him “no” we had to get out now but maybe he could spend a longer time “tomorrow.”

While I was drying him with the towel, my little boy asked me this exact question: “Ma, why adults always say tomorrow only?”

I was stunned because a four-year-old child could realise how we always push things off by saying tomorrow.

If you cannot fulfil your child's needs today, reason with the child and find a solution but don't use the easy way out.

Let your child know that as an adult we will try our best to deal with situations and not just have temporary fixes to solve a situation. Parenting is a learning process and kids can make us realise small things which have a lot of significance in our daily life.

Veronica Sivanathan