Little Ms.Rules

I am cleaning my medicine cabinet today, checking expiry dates, and writing out a list of medicines that we need to buy.

As I snip out the metallic strips that are not required, I remember something that happened many years ago.

My parents had come to spend the summer holidays with us.  My daughter was four then.

My dad was required to take his medicines after lunch. On one such day, when he opened the strip to take his tablet out, it rolled away under the cot. He could see it, and tried to take it out from under, but it was just out of reach of his hand.

He then called out to my daughter, asking her to help him. He pointed it out to her.

My daughter went down on all fours and took out the tablet. My dad put out his arm to receive the tablet, but my daughter walked away with it. My father ran after her, worried that she would pop it into her mouth. He called out to her, asking her to give the tablet back to him. But she walked on and threw it into the dustbin!

She then turned around and shook her head disapprovingly at him, and said, “Grandpa, don’t you know that there is a rule in this house that things which are on the ground should not be put into the mouth?”