Story Behind a Happy Kid

When I was pregnant, I read an article where they said there is nothing called a happy baby, a content baby who gets their needs attended to turns out to be a happy baby. This somehow gave me a clue as to why we always associate a mom to the word exhausted. To be honest being a first time mom, I was an overly obsessed mama whose world suddenly shrank to her baby whom I felt was helpless and needed my protection all the while. I know it sounds insane but at that phase of life there was this tiny human with me who was clueless about the world around him, who had no means to communicate and I felt solely responsible for him. I used to read hundreds of articles, blogs, installed apps so that I never missed out on any cue from his end. As days passed by things started getting better, I was able to read his mind. Day and night my favorite or rather only pass time was to wait for his cues and get things done for him. This made me realise how much of an effort goes behind carrying around a happy kid and world (including me before having a kid) easily labels them happy kids with lucky parents. So here are a few things that I felt is worth the sleep deprivation and dark circles :)

Knowing their Cycle: Sleep and Hunger
We have always tried to plan our outings outside his sleep timings as a sleep deprived kid is almost equal to a hungry monster, they have no clue what all tantrums they end up in.
Always carry one of their favorite snack or fruit with you when you are heading out of the house, never ever leave without their sipper with water. When you are out of food or water, thats when they need it the most and act like they are going to die of thirst :)

Plan things ahead:
If we have to attend a function at 4 pm which is midway his sleep time, try to change the whole cycle for the day by waking him early in the morning, early lunch and put him to sleep quickly so that we won't have to wake up a sleepy kid, dress him up and end up at the venue with a fussy face.

Your hand bag= baby bag!
Wet wipes, extra diapers, extra pair of clothes, his favorite toy, extra covers, cookie box, sippy cup. This is what my handbag looks like since the past 2 years. Always stock up on things so that we won't have to panic when there is a necessity.

Help them burn their energy:
Toddlers are superhumans and they just have so much energy they hardly get exhausted. So play with them, take them to the park, choose a workout that they will enjoy too (my toddler loves dance with Bipasha and because of him I end up working out 5 days a week now).

Try to read their mind:
Trust me it is not easy but then this is the best way to deal with them and who else can do it better than their moms and dads!
For example if there are guests in the house and your sleeping toddler wakes up crying, take him to a room, be with him singing his favorite rhymes and bring him out only after you feel he is ready. Who would like to see a bunch of new faces when they are out of sleep? So just give them some time and make the whole situation easier for them than forcing them to be nice to strangers :)

So here I am, admiring all those moms out there trying hard to cover up their dark circles and hunger pangs so that they end up raising a not-so-fussy kid, now I know how much of an effort goes behind it!!

Attaching a few 'behind the scenes' photos for proof 😁