I decided to go shopping for my birthday on a Saturday and was excited about it! I wanted to go alone - aking my four year old son Aadi along with me for shopping was not a good idea. But there was no one to take care of him at home and I didn’t want to give up shopping for this reason. I decide to take him along with me. After I entered the mall, I bought a coke for Aadi so that he does not bother me and we headed straight towards the female apparel section.
Aadi was trying to play peek-a-boo with me by hiding behind the stock of kurtis hung all around the store. After a while I was so busy shopping that I forgot Aadi was with me. I was somewhere in the middle of the floor when I heard Aadi crying loudly. I rushed to look for him. When I saw what had happened I turned furious. Aadi was sitting in the middle of the floor with the glass of coke spilt on his clothes.
I thought to myself, as always he must have been mischievious and purposely emptied the glass - and is now crying out for rescue. He knew that if I come to know about it, I will scold him. Crying was his usual rescue technique.
Everyone gathered around him and was looking for his parents. That was so embarrassing… before I could think of anything, I went and slapped on his cheek; my finger prints were visible on his fair skin. “Why did you do this?”, I screamed. Before he could explain, I had smacked him one more time on his back. He got choked. I picked him up and headed straight towards the lift to get out of there. When I was waiting for the lift to open I was thinking to mysel - kids embarrass us so much…I cannot even do simple things like shopping without any hassle…people without kids are really lucky…who the hell is he to spoil my weekend plan in this way.
There were lot of thoughts in my mind, when someone patted on my back. I turned around to see a middle aged lady with her mentally challenged daughter on a wheelchair. Her daughter must be a teenager but had a toddler like expressions on her face. The lady said, “Please don’t be angry with him. He was just playing and tumbled down all of a sudden and the drink slopped on him. It was not his mistake, he was crying out for you as he must have got scared. For him, you are the only protection.” The lift opened and she pushed the wheelchair to get her daughter in.
There were lot of thoughts in my mind, when someone patted on my back. I turned around to see a middle aged lady with her mentally challenged daughter on a wheelchair. Her daughter must be a teenager but had a toddler like expressions on her face. The lady said, “Please don’t be angry with him. He was just playing and tumbled down all of a sudden and the drink slopped on him. It was not his mistake, he was crying out for you as he must have got scared. For him, you are the only protection.” The lift opened and she pushed the wheelchair to get her daughter in.
With those words, I got blank and could not think of anything. What was I thinking about my son? Do I even have the right to think of something like that? How dare I could think that my son will embarrass me, in fact he is the most precious gift God gave me! Aadi turned my face towards him and said, “Sorry mummy, I will never do that again…” and hugged me. For a moment my feet got paralyzed and I had to lean towards the wall. The feeling of my son apologizing for the mistake he did not even make was so strong that I had tears in my eyes. I hugged him back and kissed him. He was smiling at me and said, “Let’s buy your birthday dress now.” I smiled and we went inside to continue our shopping.
That day changed my point of view towards being a mother. Children never embarrass you…in fact they are the ones who make you proud parents.
