The hard lessons children constantly teach us

One of the lessons I was taught was this: Never tell any creature in the universe that your son/daughter does not like something. It's amazing how we as mothers think that we are so sure of our children preferences and how our children keep on proving us wrong.

Once, my child was on an outing with my sister, and when they returned, I asked her if he had anything for lunch and she replied, "he had a tuna sandwich." I gave her a cynical smile and told her " No dear, you must be mistaken, maybe it was chicken, my son hates tuna and he would never eat it." My sister gazed at me in complete bewilderment and insisted she knew what she was talking about.

"Hatoon, your son ate the tuna sandwich that originally belonged to me! He asked for a bite and then ate the whole sandwich mashallah and left me with nothing! Go and ask him." She said.

OMG, that was so embarrassing, not only did he prove me wrong he also ate her lunch!

I remembered how he would scrunch up his face with disgust when he usually smells tuna and how I kept on trying to make him taste it, "hey, we are never disgusted from food, you should respect God's blessings and be thankful. Try it, it's tasty yum yum!" Needless to say, I never succeeded, but when I was not around, suddenly it's his favorite food.
Now what is even more embarrassing, is when a particular kind of food is always available at home and they never eat it, but when they see it at someone's else home, suddenly they treat it like a piece of art or a cherished jewel.

How embarrassing is it when in a middle of a ladies gathering your son approaches you and say out loud even though he is only few inches away from your ear, "Mom, this cake is suuuuuper yummy, we've never had something like it! Why don't you bring us a cake like it at home? Can I have a another big slice please?"

At that point, even though you know that most people understand children's maddening behavior, you wish a hole in the floor would materialize so you can disappear down it.

You can't help but dream that you can fast-forward certain moments in life or simply delete them. Even better would be to prevent them from happening in the first place! This lesson is not only for food, it applies to everything, if your son tells you he is afraid to swim and hates water, suddenly it becomes his favorite sports if he sees a swimming pool that he is not supposed to use.

If he hates a toy, suddenly he is the biggest fan of it when he go to a friend's house and sees it in the kid's possession. "Mum, why don't you ever buy us fun toys like this one?" He says right in front of the kid and his mother, while only a day ago you were in the toyshop and he absolutely refused to buy this toy.

Now if it happens with things like desserts, sports and toys, then that's OK. But the biggest problem and the most embarrassing, is when your child screams in the middle of the grocery store (Mom look! Milk Milk! I love milk, why don't you buy us any milk?" Or, "Mom look! Bananas, I love bananas! Why don't we ever have bananas at home?" You, red faced, stare angrily at your child while remembering the carton of milk you threw away and the rotten bananas you had to also toss in the bin because he refused to eat them!

You would probably get them what they want just to keep them quiet, and to keep the disapproving looks by other shoppers from making you look like a mean mother. Others may give you compassionate looks thinking perhaps that you couldn't afford to buy such items for your child.

But there would be one or two mothers with their children, who smile and look at you sympathetically, having gone through the same thing as you have.

Ah God bless our children, even though they are brilliant at embarrassing us in public!

Email: saudipulse@arabnews.com

Source: ARAB NEWS