Embarrassing Moments

As a mom, I occasionally get 'treated' to embarrassing moments. And you know it's only embarrassing when it's in public.

The most recent one involved Adik. We were at Guardian Pharmacy and I had already made payment and was putting away my change. The cashier, who looked like she'd rather be somewhere else, had already walked away to restock some shelves. As I was picking up the plastic bag of purchases, I heard a somewhat loud crash.

Concerned that something may have happened to Adik (even though I knew he was milling about my legs), I looked around frantically, calling him.

Only to find out, at exactly the same time as the cashier who now really, really wanted to be somewhere else, that Adik had brought down a rack full of mints and chewing gum. Luckily no breakables!

Adik was getting rather upset, and while he tried to prevent more stuff from falling he was also trying to pick some off the floor, failing miserably. And that made him even more upset.

By now, our sunshine-radiating cashier decided to make the right decision and told us, "It's ok, it's ok" and gesturing for Adik to just let go and let the rest of the stuff fall to the floor. I had to pretend-scold Adik on the way out to save whatever face was left.

That's Adik.

For Abang's story, I need to give some background. Like other parents, I try to teach my children the value of money, how it's not easy to come by, blah blah blah, "Daddy works very hard you know" yadda yadda yadda. I make it a point to say no more often then yes when they want me to buy something for them.

Once Abang was quite upset and said, "You have the money you just don't want to buy for me." So I replied, "Yes that's absolutely right. Just because we can afford to buy something doesn't necessarily mean we should." And I proceeded to explain to him the need to put money aside in case of emergencies, e.g. like the time he was hospitalised, etc.

I especially dislike buying things like balloons which a) cost money, b) are a nuisance, and c) they fight over even when they have one each. So one day, we were at a mall where there was a clown making balloon animals and I thought, aiyaaa ...

Still, I managed to distract them enough with something else but Abang made his way to the clown to have a closer look. He came back, running very excitedly asking me, "Mummy! Can I have one of those balloons?"

I was just about to start my well-rehearsed answer and, in anticipation of MY well-rehearsed answer, he quickly said (in a VERY loud voice), "It's ok, Mummy, IT'S FREE!!"

Uh-huh.