Maya, one of two daughters of an old friend, is a young woman who lives in London. She is married and has a seven-year-old son and a five-year-old daughter. Though she spent the first few years at home after the birth of her children, she now has a full time job in an office, a job she took primarily to augment the family income. Like so many working mothers, she has pangs of guilt about not spending enough time with her children, and again, like so many working mothers, she assuages these feelings by indulging them and giving in to their whims and fancies, however unreasonable they may be. As we all know, children are the most manipulative creatures on earth and small though they are, Rohit and Anu, no exception to this tenet, instinctively make the most of the situation. If they are told to go to bed, they throw a tantrum, knowing their mother will give in. If they don’t get the food they want — which invariably is junk food — they fling their food on the floor. If they are denied television, they scream and shout till they get their way. In other words, they are thoroughly spoilt brats, disobedient, wilful and destructive.

Which is why it came as a great surprise when Maya’s sister, Anita, who lives close by, volunteered to collect her nephew and niece from school every day and look after them until their mother was able to pick them up. Was she a glutton for punishment, I wondered, or some kind of saint? Admittedly the sisters are very close, and have always been more than willing to help each other out, but this offer, I thought, was well beyond the call of fraternal duty.

“But they are no problem at all,” explained Anita, correctly interpreting the look on my face when I heard of the arrangement. “Rohit and Anu are as good as gold when they are here. In fact, they are a great help with my two, who are impossibly unruly, untidy and unmanageable. I sometimes think I will get myself a job just to have a break from them. But when their cousins are here, peace reigns. It is almost as though their good behaviour rubs off on them!”

In return for helping out, Maya does her bit over the weekends and holidays. She has her two nephews over so that Anita can get her much-needed break. And, you’ve guessed it! Anita’s two are model children while they are with their aunt! The truth of the matter is that while children misbehave with their own parents, they behave in an exemplary manner with other children’s parents.

“It’s a pity that we can’t set up a system where we can swap our children with each other for a few hours every day,” says Anita with a laugh. “We’d be all the better for it, and so perhaps would the children.”