On Monday evening, my mom lost her phone. It was a Nokia (dun remember what model but it had camera and colur screen and stuff and barely a year old). Partly to be blamed are my kids, especially Mika who lately has the tendency to go bonkers in supermarkets and malls. He will run around as if he owns the shop and making this tendency worse is Inez who thinks it is her fillial duty to go catch him on our behalf. Mika on the other hand thinks that Inez is playing catch with him, and suddenly, the mall is their playground. It's every parent's nightmare to have children like mine.
Then there are opportunists who seize the moment and take advantage of your being distracted while shopping, and brush near you to pick your pockets or in my mom's case, her handbag. Luckily for her, he only managed to get away with her mobile phone. She didn't see herself lucky though and would rather he steal her near empty wallet than her phone! Oh poor mom, she was so depressed and still half hopeful that she'd left her phone at home. As the fates would have it, the phone is gone forever!
So the next day, Mom gave a long lecture to my kids and Inez apologized profusedly and promised to behave herself in future. Mika said nothing until the lecture ended, went to my mom, hugged her and said only 4 little words, "I love you Nana."
I tell you, my son is very good at playing his nana. My mom went all soft but continued to tell them the importance of staying near the adults when shopping.
3 comments:
Kesian your mom. I've lost my phone once so I can relate. Altho mine was lost becos of my own negligence. I was pregnant, that's my only excuse.
About your kids running around the shopping mall, you're not alone! My girls pun camtu!!! How to control them? Once I brought their cousin Haqim along, and first time I experienced how it's like to have docile kids. Haqim held on to my hand most of the time. And will listen when I call to say it's time to go. He actually commented tengok gelagat Airis and Jasmine, running around like they own the mall, "Auntie Rin, are girls ALL like that???" LOL
I've had many 'heart attacks' especially with Airis getting herself lost. But she's so independent she will find a uniformed staff to let them know, and I will hear the call for "the mother of a little 5yo girl named Airis Sophia in a blue/pink/whatever color she's wearing that day dress" on the PA system. Horror tak?
I wish my children were like haqim too. Ohhh, sure it's horror, bringing them to the supermarket. I took them the next day, just to test them after the long lecture from my mom.
One way to be in control is to actually put them in the trolley but it's not exactly a safe thing to do. I got my kids to each hold a handle of the shopping basket and threatened to leave the instant they misbehaved, like that did a fat lot of good! Anyway, that got them occupied for a while until when we went to the bread area. While I was getting the cream roll Mika wanted, Inez said something about bread and suddenly, she was gone! I nearly had a heart attack! "Inez!" I clled out a few times. It turned out she was behind the bread rack. She simply wandered off on her own. And Mika sometimes refused to budged, but most times, what got me totally irritated was his habit of losing his slipper. That would happen repeatedly. Inez, being the good sister would be the one fetching the slipper and slipping it on her brother's foot again.
You know, at least Airis has the smarts to go to a uniformed staff; which gives me an idea. I should teach my kids what to do just in case they get separated from us. I have lost Mika once (I'll post that blog later. What a frightening experience that was!); so if it happens again, God forbids, they will know what to do.
It's not so bad you know if you bring just one child shopping, it's when you bring the whole brood, that's when the trouble begins. I remember though seeing a woman at the car park in KLCC with like 5 children, all young `uns, and they were so well behaved. I dunno what jampi she used but I think the oldest was like 7 maybe and they all looked like they were a year apart and the youngest was 2 plus maybe. Bravo and hats off to her! They were all holding hands and in a single file got into her 4 wheel drive or van. It was definitely not a car, of that I'm sure.
Yes Ju, good idea to teach your kids what to do in case these things happened. I started 'losing' Airis at shopping malls when she was 4! Made sure I taught her her full name, and mine and hubby's and how old she is. She remembered what to do, but of course the incidents never fail to upset her. Tapi lesson still not learned. Next time round, lari sana sini lagi.
Also emphasise to them again and again about not speaking to strangers. I even taught Airis not to let any male teacher/school bus driver to bring her to the toilet. Two days ago she wet herself in the school van on the way home. The bus driver (male) actually stopped at a petrol station to bring her to the loo when she told him she needed to pee, but she refused to go and told him she only wants to go with Mommy. Hence the ter-shee2x incident. But at least I know she listened to me and remembered what I taught her la.
It doesn't matter if I bring one child or two. :( Still the same for me. What works for me is to bring another adult along to keep an eye on them while I do the shopping eg my maid or my hubby.
Sometimes what we do is send the kids to places like 'MegaKidz' or kids' playgrounds at hypermarkets like Giant or Tesco (with the maid of course) to play while we shop. Safer that way and they get to run around and let loose their pent up energy.
You've lost Mika once??? That is soooo scary! Cos he's too young to know what to do kan. Oh dear. My concern is about all the horror stories we hear and read in the news. About kids being abducted, raped or brought to thailand to become beggars. Nauzubillah!
Mika sama cam Jasmine. Just recently we went 3 floors down the escalator before we realised Jasmine's left shoe was missing. We had to go all the way up again to find it! ;)
Bout that mom with 5 kids, yea bravo to her! I think it's our kids yang too active lah. Depends on the child's personality. Some are born hyper, some more docile. Just so happen that our first two are hyper and we're still learning how to cope. hehe
Post a Comment