If I Was A Baby
I wish I was a baby. Toddlers are intelligent because they don’t pay taxes. They wail and holler because of boring parents, not because of presumed reasons.
He is wet.
She must be hungry.
Toddlers cry because parents are predictable. Getting into the stroller is either good or bad news. Good news if it is going out of the apartment or house to interact with the world, bad news if it is going back home to spend another day fenced in, like convicted criminals.
They can have beautiful pink or blue rooms with toys bought from Toys “R” Us, before the business filed for bankruptcy, but toddlers want more, to touch and feel the world. They itch for adventure. That is why they smile at strangers, extend their tiny hands to touch the bus window, point at dogs and run around the mall with mum in hot pursuit.
Toddlers are not born equal. Toddlers in the north of the world spend most of their time indoors staring at blowing snow while their counterparts down south in Africa drive their brothers and sisters crazy, because they want to follow them everywhere. Rain is the only thing that stops the adventure.
Toddlers in Canada and the U.S. therefore look forward to Thanksgiving because it will be a break from boring parents. There will be more hands to pick them up and marvel at their beauty. They will eat from someone’s arms, not chained to the chair. They will crawl around the house running away from cousins but they will stop at grandfather’s wheelchair, and think.
They will definitely think.
Nonqaba waka Msimang
Executive Blogger
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