Friday, April 29, 2011

on planes and mother bears


It’s been a while. A ‘virtual holiday’ I guess, as our little family has tried to regroup and recharge after what can only be described as a shocker of a first quarter.

This is how we 'recharge'.
Anyway, now that it’s not raining 23 hours of every day, I’ve been able to get out and do some more jogging with the kids. We were down at The Strand this morning and had a delightful time at the fenced park [after a brief power-play over whether wearing shoes and a hat was compulsory – Mummy won]. The metaphorical ‘cherry on top’ was when we saw a float plane“flying boat-fighter plane” flying out from Magnetic Island 'Misty Island’  do some thrilling loops above us and then land on the crystal waters directly in front of us. I had one super-excited 2 year old giving me a beautiful commentary. Apparently the plane had just been to see Grandma. Once the plane had landed, we had to keep moving in order to get LittleLady to her doctor’s appointment on time.

Smiles for free! Can you tell she's sick?
 There was a car reversing next to our car as we approached. BigMan was holding my hand and we were waiting to get him into the car. Next thing I know, our ears are being subjected to vulgar language. There was a young girl sitting in the passenger seat expressing her displeasure at the cars that were driving along The Strand, preventing them from reversing. Personally, I have no time for such language and I do not appreciate my children being exposed to it, particularly now that BigMan is such a little parrot (he only has to hear something once and it will become a permanent fixture in his vocabulary). But we were in a public space and the girl may not have noticed how close we were to her open window so I chose to ignore the girl, thankful that BigMan was still chatting away about the ‘fighter plane go to see Grandma’. That was until I heard…

“I just love swearing in front of kids.”

I beg your pardon?

Yep. 

“I just love swearing in front of kids.” That’s what she crowed to her mates.

I’ve grown up being embarrassed by one of my parents (I’ll let you guess who) talking to people they don’t know and I always swore I would not subject my children to the same fate. However, talk about a red flag to my mother teacher instincts! I very quickly let the girl know that yes, I’d heard her, and that no, I was not impressed. The look on her face, the look on her friends’ faces, and her lack of response to my challenge makes me think that it’s been quite a while since someone has ‘called’ her on her attitude.  

Thankfully, BigMan and LittleLady were both delightfully unaware of the entire scene.

I know that as they grow up there will be times when I will embarrass my children. There will be times when they will want the ground to swallow them up rather than be seen next to their mother, but when it comes to protecting my children and their innocence I will not be shaken. You know what they say about getting in between a mother bear and her cub… 

Even more 'recharging'. We've decided to give the 'Goat Track' a try this weekend... will let you know how we go!

2 comments:

  1. Way to go Mama Bear! Hopefully that girl will think twice before being so foolish again.

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  2. Nothing to do with this post, but I just wanted to reply to your comment, and bloggy crack is way better than facebook crack.

    Big Man is most certainly a normal little boy. And I've got news for you Mummy, it'll get worse at 3. It's all part of the fun. But honestly, don't worry about Big Man, he is so super sweet and just has some learning to do. :D He's full of life, and love, and curiosity. It's always a little disappointing to realise your little perfectly sweet baby has now grown and is just like all the rest of the kids out there. When Jordan hit 3 and turned into a little monster, I was sure I was doing something wrong, but every child one day starts to understand they can control certain things, and we just have to know what we want them to learn, and teach them so. So just keep up the discipline where you think it's important, and otherwise enjoy watching Big Man's personality grow.

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