Something I learned on Monday

On Monday, when TLM and I were visiting my mother, I commented to my mother how good TLM was to wear her sunhat the whole time she was outside. And in exactly that precise moment that I uttered those words, TLM knocked off her sunhat and refused to put it back on. Mum's response was that I should never have praised TLM in the first place.

For years, my mother never praised me for things that might have deserved it. When I won school prizes or got A's, she always sounded like it was the least I could do to thank her for raising me. At first, I thought it was because she was simply impossibly hard to please. But I talked to family friends and learned a little about customs of Old China. Chinese kids are told they're lazy, stupid or ugly because it protects them from being kidnapped by evil spirits, who'd much prefer a cute, clever and diligent child.

After Monday though, I know the real reason my mum avoids saying nice things about me. She's just trying to cheat Murphy's Law.

Parenting meme

Daddy L, over at The Jasper Chronicles has tagged me and I'm going to be very nice and oblige him with my answers...

1) What was your biggest surprise when you became a parent?
That some of those gooey, chocolate-box moments which made me want to gag when I heard about them as a childless singleton, now make me tear up. Like how utterly sweet it is to see your child give you a big smile at the end of a morning apart. (Or how heart-rippingly ugly it feels to leave her.)

2) Name some things you vowed you'd never do, but find yourself doing now?
Like Daddy L, I never thought I'd be eating TLM's leftovers. But unlike hyim, if it's already been in TLM's mouth then there's no way it's going anywhere but the rubbish bin.

Also, I'd really hoped I wouldn't become a baby bore. Unfortunately, a lifetime's worth of interesting pursuits has boiled down to a blog in which I mostly write about babies.

3) What's the one thing you thought you would do, but actually don't?
Am I the only one who saw herself as a future yummy mummy - made up, beautifully shoed, toned and stylish - only to succumb to the boring old baggy t-shirt + jeans + clumpy boat shoes and no makeup uniform?

An a-ha moment

There's a great walking track at the end of my street, which leads to a well-touristed lookout point. I usually walk this track on my own, and in the summer I've often set out quite late in the day so that it's getting dark by the time I've turned around for the return journey. And I would often come across lone males loitering about off-track.

Being a woman, encountering lone male loiterers tends to detract from the pleasure in my hour of fresh air and exercise. But I was probably just being paranoid.

Perhaps that guy was jogging (because they always seem to be wearing skimpy shorts, even in winter) along and had paused to admire the abundant scenery. Perhaps, after the first one stopped, another guy running behind him glanced over, briefly agreed on the loveliness of the view over the town below, then ducked into the bushes for a wee. We all know how much men like to wee outdoors. The the first guy sees him out the corner of his eye and remembers, "Yeah, my bladder's kinda bursting full. I could do with a wee too." And he ducks into the bushes, forgetting that perhaps it might be a little more polite to find a different spot. And then, embarrassed, they see each other and leave.

Or maybe this hill is gay pick-up spot and I, resident of this street for almost longer than Keira Knightley has been alive, just didn't realise until my neighbour mentioned it.