The Tiny Little Megalodon

Have you ever had a perfect idea that turned out to be not quite as perfect as you imagined? An idea that is put together with time and care. An idea that is revealed all too quickly to be, well....messy.

Spatters of blood-red patterned water paint the porcelain walls and pool upon the tiled floor. The relentless thrashing causes erratic waves, which shift the small, unstable creature back and forth upon the slick surface.

“Rawr!” the wilful child roars, clinging to their squeaky toy shark, “I am the megalodon and I’m going to eat everyone! Even you!”

The child chomps down on their tiny shark, then turns to their mother, roaring once more.

Food dye in the bath. A little something extra to get us through these Covid times. What could possibly go wrong? I thought they would at least use some of the other colours.

“Okay, megalodon,” sighs the woman, exhausted from an already tiresome day of online education, “It’s time to get dried and dressed.”

She ruffles the hair of her little monster with the towel until dry, then wraps the child tightly and carries them, giggling, to their bedroom. The dressing process does not go smoothly with jumping, rolling, squealing, running and, let’s face it, a whole lot of laughter. The mother wonders if perhaps she should be harder on her little one and lay down the law, let her know who’s boss, but at this moment her child is smiling. They don't do that as much any more.

So, instead of clinging to the pain of her own overwhelming experiences, she lets her child’s joy reach out and touch her heart. She lets go of the self judgement that accompanies not knowing the best course of action or how her choices will determine the kind of adult her little one is yet to become. She puts it aside and embraces the chaos, until finally the snuggly cotton covered child lays comfortably under the bedsheets begging for a song.

“I want a new song,” the child pleads, “One about sharks!”

Here we go again. I’m not sure what’s so bad about the old songs. They always worked wonders before, but now the only thing that will do is a brand new, never before heard song, improvised on the spot. Thank you high school Drama class and ever popular ‘Yes, and…’.

“Sharks? Why am I not surprised?” She smiles, “Alright. Umm...Sharks, sharks, very cheeky sharks, swimming all day long. Sharks, sharks, super sneaky sharks, they bite you one the bum.”

“Bum!” The child giggles, “Sharks don’t bite you on the bum!”

“They might if you don’t go to sleep on time,” the mother sighs, “Now, come on. It’s time to go to sleep. Good night my little one. I love you always.”

“Good night Mama,” the child grins, “I love you always.”

Okay, I suppose that was worth it. Nothing beats the sound of their laughter or of those four important words being spoken from a place of innocence and all encompassing emotion. I will never stop being thankful that this amazing little person is a part of my life.

With a very big, very fake yawn, the child rolls over to commence their very fake snores. The mother stifles a laugh, just this one time so as to not risk another burst of energy, and carefully closes the door. With a tired sigh she wanders back to her current workspace and opens her laptop once more, as the names of more than a hundred other people’s children stare back at her again. She picks up where she left of when the school day ended, marking tasks, logging attendance, designing and redesigning lessons, checking up of on student and parent wellbeing issues, creating brand new resources that are online education friendly, further data entry, and finally some more training that she can hopefully use to make this time just a little easier for her students and their families.

When the time has ticked into the early hours of the morning, she takes time to unwind and finally lay herself down to rest. As she tries to settle her weary, worried mind, she thinks back to the playful child splashing in the bath, her little megalodon.

I’m so lucky.