Filed under: Games, Stores and shopping
Children are always a source of embarrassment, aren't they? Personally, I'm starting to think they should not be allowed to speak in public until they reach the age of 21. Just kidding. A little.When my son was younger, we frequented a local grocery store that had small carts for the children to push alongside the parents while they shopped. If the store was not very crowded, I would race him down the aisle, walking fast to see who could get to the end first.
One day, we were in a hurry, and I did not have time to play our regular game. He moaned and groaned, pouting, and finally I urged him to hurry up so we could check out. Seeing his sad little face, I caved and said, "Race me to the checkout line." So we pushed our carts to the checkout line where it was very crowded, and my son screamed out, "Mommy, please don't beat me! Don't beat me, Mommy, wait, I'm coming!"
As you can imagine, this scene raised quite a few eyebrows of the people in line. I could see the wheels turning in their heads, thinking, "Is she abusing that poor child for not walking fast enough?" I turned 1000 shades of red and wanted to explain our game, but what a dilemma. Explain away the suspicion that I'm a child abuser by telling them I encourage my son to race shopping carts in the grocery store? Quite the double-edged sword, huh?
I certainly learned my lesson. No more grocery store games for me. I guess I deserved that embarrassment by my inappropriate behavior with the shopping carts.
How have your children embarrassed you in public? Has any game you've created with your kids been misunderstood?Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
