Laura Hunt sent in this story about exactly what can happen when you combine a mom with a sarcastic sense of humor and a 6-year-old with a big mouth.
I am a mother of three amazing kids who remind me every day of why I should apologize to my own mom on a regular basis and marvel in the fact that she is not locked away somewhere with soft rubber walls. I am NOT a health food nut, I encourage my kids to play OUTSIDE, do not own video game consoles, and jokingly tease my kids into learning to laugh at themselves instead of taking life so seriously. All in all, I think they are going to survive, but that doesn’t mean they don’t sometimes make me wonder why in the world I take them into public. The following is a prime example. . .
When I was pregnant with my third child, my son was 6 and my daughter was 3. My son thought it was the funniest thing to put on mom’s bra and walk through the house in just his undies. One of those times, I decided to snap a pic. About two weeks later I gathered up the monsters and headed out to Walmart to get the pictures developed. My precious little angels were very good for the first hour of Mommy wandering the store picking up odds and ends, but by the time we came to the camera department, the troops were showing signs of fatigue. Looking back, I should have paid for what we had and left. I later regretted not following that initial instinct. . .
While looking through the memory card in a kiosk, I came across that picture of my baby boy in my bra and showed him the screen. He looked right into my eyes and said, “You are NOT going to get that one !” at which point a laughed and told him, “Oh yes I am, and I am going to frame it when we get home” (there is that teasing I was talking about). My son stood up in the shopping cart and, as loud as he could, said, “That’s it, we are going home, sissy’s getting naked, and we are taking pictures!”
I had never actually wished for an earthquake before that time, but there is a first for everything. After the ringing in my ears died down (caused by the rush of blood to my face), I realized that the FULL camera department was suddenly very quiet and all staring at us. I managed to get my memory card out of the kiosk after a few attempts (shaky hands), pushed the cart to the front of the store, grabbed the kids, and left.
The next closest Walmart is a 20 minute drive, but I have convinced myself that I enjoy the scenery along the way.
Tammy Soong is a writer, wife, and mom from Reno, Nevada. She takes an absurd amount of pain medication, but not enough to have actually named her children "Newt" and "Elfie." She spends most days stressing out over clutter, writing stuff for this place, and working on podcasts with her gal pals, the Blogging Betties.
So glad I wasn't there because had I been there, I would have laughed so hard I probably would have fallen to the floor and cried laughing tears. This is great!
My recent post A Great Injustice
Hah! But on the flip side, it was a Walmart, so don't worry, people were probably listening so they could go home and try…