Mummy ka magic

Becoming a mother is momentous enough but becoming a mother-in-law is much more so – here is an adult whose nappies you did not change, whom you did not baby talk to, who did not cling to or hide behind your pallu (proverbial or otherwise) , who did not keep you awake at nights as a baby and then an adolescent and….. so on but who is calling you “Mummy”. When my son-in-law to be addressed me for the first time as “Mummy” I was overwhelmed – cannot pinpoint the emotion – a mixture of happiness, tenderness, motherliness (don’t know whether this qualifies as a valid emotion). It evoked in me the same feeling as when my daughter uttered Ma for the first time (which was quite late and even after she was addressing me as Nitu as I was called by everyone else). "Mummy" is a magic word. Till SK had not uttered it, he was a nice boy and all that but it ended there. But after that, I worry about his health, his eating habits, his comfort and discomfort, I look for things in the men’s section of lifestyle stores that he might like (otherwise I would just skip that floor or drag my feet behind my husband). My daughter cannot understand this and is beginning to show signs of spousal rivalry( aka sibling rivalry) and I do not know how to handle this. If I had had two children, maybe both of us would have known what to do but here, both of us are new to this emotion.