I’m very glad that I don’t know how often I look as though I am being a terrible parent even when I’m not, because I think the social anxiety would kill me.
A few weeks ago I went to visit my brother and sister-in-law.
We were having breakfast.
In the course of this, my brother burst out “Mean Mama!”
I thought, perhaps, he was making a joke. Like, “Life is just so hard, having to eat toast for breakfast!”
He continued. “I saw that!”
He looked at my child. “Mama’s being mean, huh!”
At this point, I decided to give up the cool charade I try to present when I think people are making suave jokes that I should be getting.
I looked up. “What?”
My brother continued to address my child. “Mama is teasing you, huh? She keeps offering you food and then taking it away!”
“Umm, no,” I said, “I keep offering but this kiddo keeps on dodging my hand. So then I eat it.”
“Oh.” My brother stood there for a few seconds.
“Watch: Let’s try toast… no success. Now let’s try a bit of rice crispy… easy.”
I think he got it, but it was still a little awkward.
However, it could have been a much worse misunderstanding.
I would know.
Like on the day when I took my baby to campus in the middle of the snow.
It was blizzarding, so I decided the safest method to transport my baby was via a carseat strapped in a stroller. I had brought a snowsuit for my baby, but it wasn’t going to fit in the stroller, so I laid it on top of my baby as an extra blanket.
It looked vaguely like this:
Eventually I made it to the right building and up four floors to my Professor’s office, where I knocked.
He opened.
“Come on in,” he said.
He paused.
“That looks dangerous.”
He pointed at the stroller.
I gave him a confused expression as I took the snow suit off of my baby and began to unbuckle the car seat.
“Oh! I thought that was the baby,” he said, pointing to the snowsuit.
It was a good reminder for me in seeing other parents doing things that seem a little crazy. Things aren’t always as they seem.
No comments:
Post a Comment