Because I'm super duper fun

I have been on WFH for almost ten weeks now and sometimes I’m still stumped as to why I am way more whacked now by the end of the day compared to when I was going to work on a daily basis pre-quarantine.

Then I had an epiphany: TWO SUGAR-FUELED BOYS vs. FORTYSOMETHING TITA.

See, being around two hyperactive boys (and sometimes having to babysit) is just one of the many challenges of telecommuting. My makeshift workstation at home is in a common area and it can get so noisy that it’s hard to hear over all the hooting and hollering. In the middle of me doing my tasks, the little one would poke me to show me the games on his cellphone and he can be pretty demanding for my attention. The older one, on the other hand, is almost always the mastermind of the ruckus, teaching his younger brother all the little mischiefs. In between, expect a lot of crying, fighting, running, thumping, and breaking.

Even if there are times I’d lose my cool at them when they become too much to handle, I’m sure about one thing: My two nephews are happy that I am home and they’ll miss me so much when I go back to the office.

That is because I let them be kids.

You may have heard of the saying that you should let children collect memories, not material things ⁠— because it is what they remember more. My boys beam when they are reminded of our past hotel staycations or time at the mall or playground, no matter how low-key. It’s especially tougher for them now because of the quarantine that they have nowhere else to go. For almost three months they have not been anywhere but home.

Weeks through the lockdown, I noticed how their father, my younger brother, is so short-fused when the boys get rowdy. This is especially at bath time where I’d hear him yell at his sons from the bathroom downstairs for being too obstreperous. I thought ⁠— how awful that was for my nephews that they can’t even have some fun because their dad had no patience with the fact that they’re just being kids. No wonder my sobrinos don’t seem to enjoy bath time that much.

So one day during my break at work, while my brother had been whining about his hemorrhoid all morning, I volunteered to bathe the boys.

Guess what? I’ve been doing it eversince.

Bathing them when we go on staycations, now I do it daily.

My nephews like it when it’s their bath time because they know it’s going to be one helluva playtime. I let them bring toys like water pistols, let them play water brigade (it’s a water game my brothers and I used to play as kids), blow soap bubbles, whip up foams to make beards and hats, throw small buckets of water at each other, hose them like I’m a firetruck, etc. Every day, I had to be creative and think of a new game so my nephews will always look forward to bath time.

When I’d step out of the bathroom all soaked, and my mom would ask me in between chuckles why I even let myself get that wet, I’d tell her it’s all good as long as the boys had a few minutes of fun.

Make no mistake though — I know I encourage playing while bathing, but tita is all about serious cleaning and scrubbing. With that at least, I don’t do shortcuts. Letting them play is somewhat my strategy to distract them so I can get away rubbing the gunk off in every square inch of their bodies. I make sure that when they’re done, they’re squeaky clean from head to toe. After every bath, they are the freshest boys in all of Tramo.

Don’t let this manang-looking, middle-aged blogger right here fool you. I’m actually super duper fun in the eyes of my nephews.