When things just go down south !!

Gave Jr. a bath day before yesterday. As usual put on her pants and pulled it up.

She promptly lowered the pants to expose her belly button. For some reason, I thought she was just checking something and I pulled up the pants again and said "run along, bath time is done .. go comb your hair!" and she says

"No daddy, dont pull up my pants!"

As a novice daddy who is dealing with navel exposure in pre-schoolers for the first time, I was dumbfounded ! Why would an almost 4 year old (not yet 4 mind you) want to lower her pants to her waistline ??? Just why ??? and where is all this leading to ???

I calmed myself down without showing approval or disapproval for what she did. I needed to give this some thought !! There are some teachers in her pre-school who do expose their belly buttons .. Maybe she is using them for a role model ? Maybe it is watching too much Sun TV (Tamizh channel) where all the heroines are shaking their navel to pulsating beats on a 52" screen !!Or maybe there is some other reason ?

When I see the struggles in my future, cannot help but think "Might as well get myself a heart attack early and pass on than go through what lies ahead with this girl"..

Note to self : Google searches to do tomorrow :

kids exposing bellybutton
how to avoid sleepovers
winning an argument with your daughter
are you a good daddy ?

etc. etc.

And the best part is that Jr. is my best behaved kid. The little one doesnt respect my commands or instructions and blatently ignores me already !!

Sometimes I dream of raising my kids in some remote island where there is no other people, no TV, no internet !! and I just start crying because I love people, TV, internet !!! This is one of those times where you realize you cant have your cake and eat it too.

Then came a new realization. The wife managed to find out the real reason. Jr. is growing tall and some of her favorite pants are a little short when I pull them up. Apparently she is just trying to make sure that the pants come down to her ankles and her daddy is actually stupid enough to translate an ankle problem into a bellybutton problem !!

I have learnt two lessons today.

1. I am a paranoid dad and clearly lack the skill set to deal with my daughters growing up.. I am going to end up like Steve Martin in that movie where his daughter gets married !!

2. At least my wife has a better communication channel with the little one !! and we are covered as long as that line of communication is alive and well ..

Whew !!!