Size Matter

"Anger makes you smaller, while forgiveness forces you to grow beyond what you were." ~Cherie Carter-Scott

Mud and sand littered my bathroom floor.

I sent a disgusted side-glance to the heap of sordid shoes lying in the corner of the bathroom and set down to work. The gushing of water from the tap and the vicious brushing of the shoes hardly drowned the deafening gaiety from the next room.

The grains of sand are like my kids: tiny but irritating.

Angel dropped by once in a while with her quote of the day: “Relax. Take your time.” Instead of finding it a consolation, it’s acerbic.

Of course that Little Devil didn’t know she was adding salt to my wound. She tends to pick things up from the TV shows, teachers and friends, and she’ll play it again and again and again for the next few days. Just the week before school closed for the June holidays, she was taught a new song in school. For the next couple of weeks, this song became her theme songs. And she thought she was entertaining us all the time while she was repeating the same “Slap and Punch” song at least ten times per day.

This week tends to be the “relax-take-your-time” week. She had picked that sentence out from a TV show.

I barely grunted to her innocent remark, continuing to scrub vigorously at the obstinate mucks on the shoes. Just like my kids: obstinate fellows who refuse to buck off.

Alright, I was assaulting my kids mentally. So much so for leaving me in the lurch to clear up their messes, while they were having a great game of UNO. What’s worse, they seem to purposely amplify their barks of laughter in contrast to my muffled griping.

Oh well, they had done their share of mopping the floor and washing their own dishes for the day, but I had a bigger share of the dirty works! I had to vacuum the floor, wash their soiled clothing, hang out the laundry, make lunch for them and wash the remaining dishes. And now I still have to scrub their murky shoes! So unfair! Goodness. Didn’t I sound just like my kids?

At long last, I completed the grueling task with a broken nail, aching muscles and a stiff back. I straightened myself painstakingly and walked out of the bathroom only to bump straight into an over-zealous Angel who seemed to take an interest on supervising over my work.

I braced myself for another “relax-take-your-time” excerpt but was taken aback when she blabbered enthusiastically,

“Mummy, I’ve made you a cup of Ribena because I can see that you have been working so hard for the whole day doing so many things around the house. You must be exhausted!”

I gaped at her, felt ashamed of myself almost instantly, and gave her a big hug.

So what if I surpass my little girl in size? The size of her heart surpasses mine tremendously.