The circus is in town

I adjust my eye mask and stick the earplugs deeper in my ears as I sense my partner being dragged out of bed by the youngest kid, at what it feels like quite an early hour.

My sense of guilt for not having to leave the bed vanishes as soon as I turn around and fall back sleep.  

Shortly later a kid scream wakes me up, I take a deep breath, get up and open the blinds. A face peeps through the glassed bedroom door (seriously?? Who the hell thought that a glass door was a good idea for a room??). Seeing me up she bursts in and jumps on the bed, ‘catch me, catch me, let’s play the catch the monster game’.

My brain can’t comprehend what’s happening as I am normally a silent zombie before tea so I rush to the kitchen were the other two are eating, leaving food leftovers all over the place. Another deep breath as I head towards the bathroom, on the floor lay ducks, a diving mask and other toys. I stare at the mirror before washing my face, ‘mirror mirror, I didn’t even go partying last night why are you being so mean to me?’

I sneak back to the room, sip the tea and unroll the yoga mat. A few minutes after starting the practice little faces show up at the door. I pretend that I don’t see them and proceed. Taking advantage of my upside-down asana they walk in and it is like the circus is in town. They take over the mat, props flying all over the place.

‘Oh I can do that too’, they say.

‘Wonderful, we can practice together’, I reply. But no, they only want to do the fun poses and start competing against one another and then with me. I try to explain them that this is not the purpose but they don’t get it so I give up.

Competition for attention, competition for the time spent with the electronics, competition for who’s drawing the best pictures, the one who knows best the magic tricks, who’s more flexible, more athletic, better cyclist, smarter, stronger and even a competition for who’s the most successful at controlling the others and manipulating the adults. It’s fascinating to observe the sense of self developing and the use of strategies to be ‘the favourite one’.  

Can kids be taught to just be? Do we need to start competing from such a young age?