Let them come in

If you have kids, you will know how irritating they can get sometimes. When you're trying to do work, when you're trying to sleep, when you're trying to read.

They will ask you questions, bug you to play with them, even climb on your lap to see what you are doing. The natural reaction is to ask them to keep quiet, go away and push them off you lap.

But then I stop and realise that one day, they will stop doing this and that I would be the one that would irritate them, bug them to talk to me and ask them to come sit on my lap. This period of childhood where they will come back even after being scolded and pushed away is just a short few years. It is almost like they have the memory of goldfishes - returning again and again even after being rejected. Innocent forgiveness and forgetfulness.

So I will be kind, welcoming and encouraging to them. For one day, I will be asking the same of them.