BigBrownMonster

Pinkxi is a dreamy lil critter.

BBM turns all cranky whenever Pinkxi takes her time to change her clothes, eat her meals and get her share of house chores done, amongst other things. Sometimes, BBM’s instructions to her pops up between her play/reading time and it’d take awhile for BBM to expect a ‘calibrated’ response. Other times, Pinkxi simply tunes out and BBM’s got to fish her back from a distant galaxy. BBM had since gotten into a habit of addressing Pinkxi as “Slowwy” whenever she fell short of his expected response time.

Yesterday during dinner, BBM caught her tuning out after a couple of bites and he started calling out to “Slowwy”. Usually, “Slowwy” gets on with her meal, albeit finishing it on her own pace (well, at least she tries to finish the portion on her plate). But this time it was different. Pinkxi turned to BBM and asked in earnest if he could stop addressing her that because she “really doesn’t like it”, before chomping down the rest of her dinner.

It then dawned upon BBM that what he’d perceived as an innocuous label, may carry a whole lot of stigma to a 5 year old. In this sense, “Slowwy” is probably just as bad as “dumb” or “lazy” or a whole lot of negatives that shouldn’t be associated with lil critters. Perhaps it’s even detrimental to BBM’s continuing effort in getting her to ‘speed things up’. Certainly the last thing BBM wants is to have her feel defeated for whatever little tasks she’s to come across.

Later that evening, BBM sat Pinkxi down and apologised. She asked if BBM would promise not to call her “Slowwy” again.

“Of course, Papa promise!” BBM boomed.

“For real?”

“Eh yah….but you must also promise to try your best to speed things up a little ok?”

Pinkxi grinned and cuddled up.

>> Back to Growing Up with Pinkxi.