My Moment of Shame
I froze as the little voice from behind me shrieked ‘Mommy! What did you just write?’ By the time I figured out what she was talking about, I also realized that my back was against the wall. She had caught me red handed. I had confiscated so many things from our kids over the the years that all I have to do is stick my palm out without saying a thing. Well…it was payback time. She stuck her pudgy hand out through the headrest and without saying a word, I obliged placing my phone in her hand. She took ten seconds to examine the evidence.
‘Mommy.. you used the ‘f’ word.. how could you?’ I was guilty as charged. But what now? Of all the words i could use, why this one? Why the ‘f’ expletive. I know why: because one of my best friends had just WhatsApped me a piece of information to which that word seemed the appropriate reply. Ugly I know.. but hey sue me. Should I tell her to sue me? A million and one excuses and lies rushed through my head.. luckily for me, she wasn’t waiting for an excuse. She was in a position of strength, and she was sooooo going to milk it. I tried to mutter something about her spying on my conversation with Laila, but she would have none of it.
She shamed me. She scolded me…all to the tune of her brother’s laughs. It was unlike him to stay quiet through something like this.. but his was an even bigger vendetta, and he saw that she had me squirming that all he felt he needed to do was laugh!
In the end, she let me off with a stern warning, and made me write an apology to Laila for using inappropriate language. Thank God it’s over. People in glass houses should not throw stones- something I say to my kids all the time. As such, I have resolved to lay low for a few weeks ..and not notice inappropriate language used by my children until this thing blows over!
