Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Don’t go to the mall with my children

Once your children are older and past the tantrums you would think that it is a breeze to go to malls with them.  NOT TRUE in my case. One Friday evening Michael was flying home from Durban.  I had to be in Randburg earlier but it was too early to go to the airport, so the girls and I decided to stroll around the Waterfront to kill time.  The Waterfront is a mall that has a little park inside of it.  It is a leisurely type of mall with not many stores but many restaurants and it hosts a lot of festivals.
Anyway my girls start getting a bit bored which is never a good thing because then they start getting ideas.  Carmen and Raewyn were about 13 and 12 at the time Jess was 8.  Carmen and Raewyn started whispering things to Jess and giggling. Next thing I know, Jess walks up to a stranger looks at him and says “I don’t have a Daddy will you be my Daddy?”  The poor man was very startled and he actually ran away.   I tried to hide in a corner and hoped that nobody would realise that they were my children.  They did not end it there; Jess also asked a stranger, “Are you single?  My Mommy is lonely” Lucky for them that I love them because I was very tempted to leave them at the mall then they could be asking strange women to be their Mommies.
Raewyn and her best friend Danielle (she is part of the family) went to the mall with me one day at this stage they were about 15 and 17.  They decided to dance around close to me singing a song very loudly with plenty of unsavoury language.  Seeing that they were in their teens, and capable of looking after themselves I did leave them.  Unfortunately they found me again. 
Jessica goes to the National School of the Arts.  She is extremely dramatic and artistic and it shows in her outfits.  She loves purple and at one stage had her hair dyed purple.  We went to the shops and she was wearing a pixie purple skirt, black tights, purple shoes and purple top.  Her clothes are never normal and where ever we walk I see people just stop and stare.  She is oblivious to all the people staring.  Besides for going out in flamboyant outfits she has no qualms about going out in pyjamas so no matter where I go with her people stare.   At least on her own she does not behave too badly, but I forget how strange her outfits can be so when people stare in our direction I start to check if my zip is up and if my top is on the right way round. 
Many of the girl’s friends call me Mom, on a particular day I was rushing through the mall with about 9 kids in tow.  I realised that my zip was up and my top was the right way round but people were giving me odd looks.  Then I understood that 9 kids all different ages were calling me “Mom” I know what they were thinking, “Buy a TV”.

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