What Was Your Most Embarrassing Parenting Moment?
Let me tell you a little story about two babies, a brand new rug and vomit. (If I feel like I’ve written too much about vomiting this month , that’s fair criticism, but it doesn’t change anything.) When my son was about eight months old, we went to visit a friend who had just had their first child. … I did everything you have to do – brought the family zucchini bread, snuggled up to the newborn, asked Mom how she was feeling, because no one asks Mom how she was doing. I even praised them for their new carpet and listened to them talk about how it was the last piece they hammered in to complete a big room renovation and how happy they were with it. I basically modeled what “experienced” parenting looks like, that’s what I’m talking about. Until the vomiting began.
The visit is almost over. I returned the bundle to his mother and took my child in my arms. And this child – my child – started vomiting. I’m talking about him, on the right side of me, the couch, the parquet floor and, unfortunately, that is very fluffy, very new, very expensive carpet, which they had just bought.
My baby stopped vomiting just long enough for me to exclaim, “WHAT IS HE …” before he could get up again. None of us knew what to do, so we all froze in place. The vomiting itself was bad, but if I tried to get to the sink, I knew I was going to create an even wider path of destruction. Finally, my friend’s mom, who had traveled all over the country to visit her newborn grandchild, started throwing towels into the situation. At the very least she will have a good story to tell when she gets home.
I then lived in Phoenix, and I had to drive home in the heat of the desert for 45 minutes, dressing my son in his spare clothes, but, of course, without having spare clothes for myself. The smell of the mixture and chickpea puree (whole) threatened to take our lives. It was Drive of Shame, if there was one at all, but the situation only got worse when I later texted my friend to apologize and she said, “Don’t worry about it! We dipped the entire rug into the pool. Now it’s drying in the sun, I’m sure everything will be fine. “
I don’t know what has got me thinking about this lately, given that it happened almost ten years ago, the problem of going back to simpler times. But it got me thinking that parenting can be so many things – challenging, rewarding, stressful, wonderful – and it can be very awkward.
We all have these stories. Times when our children blatantly insulted someone, or when they were just a three-year-old who threw a big tantrum for leaving the jumping house while all the other three-year-olds dutifully pulled on their shoes, or when they repeated what they heard you said they should n’t have eavesdropped.
It’s a holiday week in the midst of a pandemic, and we’ve earned the right to be entertained the way we want, including reflecting on the embarrassing moments of our parenting journey and sharing them with tons of strangers.
Tell us: What was your most embarrassing moment in parenting?