LIFT'S LITTLE WONDERS

I can't think of any parent of a two-year old who has not gone through the tantrum-on-the-floor wringer. It's almost a rite of passage. Well, mine is delivered in a busy shopping mall. With text book efficiency, Junior folds his face into the you-bad-mum-me-great-avenger stance, lets out a huge war cry cleverly disguised as a wail and sinks onto his knees. Now I reckon that my options are 1. leave him on the floor til he is done and brave the looks of passers-by [bad, bad mother, poor, poor baby]. 2. haul him to his feet and strap him down to the pushchair before he has a chance to think...then let him wail [bad mother, poor baby but at least the laundry's not such a nightmare...] 3.get down on the floor and wail along with him [the idea being he will be so embarrassed, he'll get up, maybe even put me on the pushchair, my feet could do with the break...] [crazy mother 999...]or.. 4. what I do. Say in a firm voice, get up, kid. What do you want? Surprise, surprise he is so shocked, he gets up and points towards... towards Zara? What the heck does a two-year old need from a fashion outlet shop? I let him lead the way. We stop at the bench outside Zara. I'm still at sea here. He sits on the bench, scoots left a little, then a little more, then sits contentedly and looks upward with the faintest of smiles. That's it, folks! I am the mother of the reincarnated Buddha. I sit next to him. I figure we are people watching? No, he is staring at the marvels that are the glass lifts going up and down the mall. I watch him. He watches them. Then he says, "look Mummy, lifts going up, up, up and down, down down." We sit there for 19 minutes, me puzzled, him, amazed. Then I get it. Life truly is full of wonder. Take lifts for example, carrying all those people, shopping, pushchairs, wheelchairs, supplies and who knows what else up and down all day. Swallowing them on one floor, then disgorging them on another. Moving them from one reality to another all day, day after day. We sit there for 1 minute, me amazed, him amazed. Then, he gets up and walks round to the lifts. It's time to change our reality. We step into the open mouth of the glass lift. And we're off. Up, up and away... THOUGHT FOR THE DAY Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has many; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some. - Charles Dickens