5 Minutes

This is a friendly and funny warning to all new parents who have toddlers: Be very careful of what you say to your child as he/she can candidly use it “against” you.

Every night after I come from work, I am in-charge of washing our dishes after dinner.
But Zek our eldest, who have been playing by himself mostly during the day, is very much eager to start our playing time.
Time and time again, he would call my attention to play.
So in order for him to develop his patience, I would gently remind him, “Wait, 5 minutes only, ok?”

However a funny twist happened last night during our bedtime.
It was nearly midnight but Zek was still restlessly full of energy and refused to sleep while my eyelids were helplessly closing.

“Daddy, wee-wee?”, he ingeniously said so we will go out of the room again.
I obliged and took him to the bathroom.

“Daddy, juice?”, as we slowly settled back to our bed.
He was actually referring to his milk-choco drink that her mom prepares for him normally every breakfast so I can only second-guess his desire to drink it at this particular night.
Still half-sleep, I carried him to the dining area and instead gave him a ready-to-drink cold tea from the refrigerator.
He drank it and we went back to bed.

Presumably running out of idea on how to get off the bed again, Zek quietly slided down and started to walk towards the door.
That’s when the father-authority figure in me crank up a bit.
So with a sleepy but solid low-voice I reminded him to go back to bed or else I will be angry already.

Zek sheepishly looked at me and with a slight-protesting tone replied back, “Wait Daddy, 5 minutes only, ok?”

I suddenly lost my sleepiness and can’t help it but to laugh with him.
In the end, I just let him play with my mobile phone in bed until he fell asleep by himself.

As they say, kids will be kids.