The (Inter) Generation Game

Good parenting requires not just energy, but often a generous helping of imagination, too. There is an almost continuous battle of wits taking place between different generations, and that can include parents and children at almost any age and stage of life! The most obvious challenges are those that involve young children; and as most harried parents will tell you, sometimes desperate times call for desperate measures.
A creative imagination can come in remarkably useful at times like this. For example, a friend of a friend recently resorted to some unusual tactics, because he was finding it almost impossible to get anything done in the midst of managing his delightful but highly active three-year-old daughter. Finally, he had an idea...

Father: Now we are going to play a new game. It's the "Mummy Game". Do you want to play?
Daughter (excitedly): Yes, yes! How do you play that?
Father: It's a game from ancient Egypt. Go and fetch me the shawl and I will show you.
He then wraps his daughter up in the shawl and explains that she has to lie on the bed, as part of the game. The three-year-old complies.
Daughter (after 5 minutes): And now what happens?
Father (rushing from one task to the next, in order to fully utilise this window of opportunity): And now you have to see how long you can lie like that. The longer you can lie, the more you are winning!
Daughter (after 10 minutes): I'm bored. Now I want to get up!
Father (unwrapping her from the shawl and giving her a hug): You did such a great job - you won!
The little girl was absolutely delighted at her victory, but I have to admit, it left me with some questions. Did she win? Did she really?! I think it was her father who won that round of the game!
After I discussed this with some of my friends on Facebook, I discovered that there are apparently different versions of the scheme currently in circulation all over the world. One of my friends in the US mentioned the same game, except that it was called "Dead Fish" - with of course the fish (child) that lay still for the longest time being the winner. Yet another variant of this game is called "Dead Lions", with - you guessed it! - the “lion” that plays dead most effectively being the winner. I can't help feeling that in the politically correct and gentler child-rearing era in which we operate, the game should perhaps be renamed "Sleeping" rather than "Dead" lions, though…
Sometimes children will demonstrate unexpected uses for the wisdom that older generations attempt to provide to them. For example, my friend Mira often finds that her kids not only come up with some interesting questions for her, their follow-up comments and questions are even more interesting. Recently, her son Faiz asked, "Amma, are the pigeons in the porch our tenants?"
"Yes," Mira responded, taking the easy way out. Technically speaking, she was of course right since the pigeons do live on their property. Immediately, Faiz had a follow-up question, asking "Do they pay rent?" Again, his mother replied in the affirmative, "Yes, but only in poop." Not to be outdone, Mira's daughter Anya chimed in, referring to her maternal uncle, who also lives in the house with them - "The pigeons have left lots of rent on Mamu's car"!
Of course, older kids can be entertaining too, but more often than not, they tend to decide that they don't particularly want to talk to adults... At a Christmas party last year, a friend's teenager, the most funny and adorable 14 year old I have met in recent times (and let's face it, 'teenager' can be more like a disease than a stage of growth at times!) took me by surprise with her friendliness. While a live music session was underway - featuring "Bridge Over Troubled Water" and "You've Got a Friend", alongside "Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer" - I had the following conversation with her.
Teen (laughing): Adults are so lame. Look at all of them, singing along. It's so embarrassing! Do they not realise how embarrassing it is?! Oh my God...
Me: You do realise, you're going to be an adult one day. Just like them, in fact!
Teen: No, never!!! I am never going to be like them. Never!
Me: But you are - honestly! And sooner than you think, in fact, because you're smart for your age.
Teen (triumphantly): Nope, I'm never going to be like them. I'm going to be a cool adult. Like you!
She will go far, this one - she has already recognised the value of flattery…
Finally, a recent conversation with my rather elegant mother proved not only that intergenerational conversations can teach us things at almost any age, it also reminded me yet again of the many reasons why I will never be a fashionista. I was getting ready to travel -times at which I always prioritise comfort over classiness, in terms of clothing - and she was clearly worried about just how, ahem, "casual" I was planning to get.
Mother: Just promise me that you won't wear a shalwar with your T-shirt, like you did that time!
Me: That's just vicious slander. I have *never* worn a T-shirt with a shalwar outside the house!
Mother: You did that time...
Me: That was not a shalwar! It was one of those Aladdin pants. They are perfectly respectable. Lots of people wear them.
Mum: What pants?!?
Me: Oh, you know what I mean! They have some name out of the 'Thousand and One Nights'.
Mum (manages to shudder and sigh simultaneously): Oh my God, are you talking about Harem pants?
Me: Yes, yes, those are the ones!
OK, fine, I admit that I do sometimes wonder if I'm adopted. And I suspect she does too! But one undeniable truth remains: the generation of adult wisdom is facilitated by such inter-generational exchanges of wisdom…