I went to Bath & Body Works around noon today, since my mother left a post-it note on my coffee mug before she went to work, saying,
"Go to Bath & Body Works and exchange something for me. Give me a call once you sees this.
- Love, mom.
P.S. Cook rice."
Yeah, har-har at the 'Cook rice' note, I know.
So I gave her a call, followed her instructions, grabbed some lotion bottle or something that she wanted me to exchange, grabbed the receipt, grabbed the car keys, went there, found the one that she wanted, took it, and waited in line for the counter.
There stood a mother and a son, what seemed to be like and it seemed like the mother wanted to return something too. They were infront of me and the line was still pretty long. The mother was a bit loud and she kept talking to her son in Chinese.
Getting bored in the line without anything that was interesting for me to look at, I just looked at them since there was nothing to do and they were right there so I just kept looking and it kept me really intersted.
Like I said, the son seemed to me like a 7th/8th grader, quiet, had his hood on, had the left side of his ear phone on, and kept looking at his phone very often. And the mother, holding some bottles and a receipt in her hand, continously kept talking to her son and Chinese, asking questions, showing him the receipt, and kinda seemed in a rush. And the son was barely speaking. He answered when the mom asks something but he kept looking away and focusing more on his ipod, and it seemed to me like he was trying to ignore his mother, from my observations. So my eyes were just on them the whole time, basically, and suddenly, the kid grabs the receipt furiously, takes a look at it, said something very quitely in Chinese to her mother. And they kept talking to each other and goes out of line all of a sudden. And I was like, um, what? Because they've been waiting so long too and they were like the next one to go to the counter. So, yeah, I stood there, with a questioned face, and said, "UM...", and the lady gave me a hand signal to go ahead and laughed. I said, "Oh, okay". There was still someone at the counter so I was going to be the next one and the lady and her son were just standing on the side, talking.
I can't help but kept glancing over and what seemed like happening, to me, in my opinion, was that the lady doesn't speak much English but she wants to return something, or ask something at the counter. And she was telling her son to talk for her when they get to the counter. But the son was embarassed and annoyed of her mother's loudness of Chinese speaking, maybe because of the fact that they are returning something, maybe the fact that there were so many people, maybe because he's a guy and he's in Bath & Body Works, but mostly because he was with his mother, who doesn't speak much English, who wants him to do something that he doesn't want to do. And they kinda stopped talking and I glanced over again and they were just standing there. So I said, "Oh, I'm sorry, would you guys like to come back in?" and the kid kinda looked at me weird but the lady smiled, nodded, said 'Thank you' and came back in the line.
So, they went up to the counter, I might've eavesdropped a little, and I heard the kid saying, "My mom wants to return this but she's wondering how this 15%(or 50%) coupon works for these products." And the lady at the counter explained, the kid then explained to his mom, they returned that bottle, and bought other bottles, and left. The kid seemed really embarrassed and mad. So, I guessed right. The mom didn't speak English so much.
I kept thinking to myself when they left, "Poor mom".
As an asian teenager myself (kind of, but not that young), I understand how the kid feels in these kinds of situations and it's worse because he's at an age where he's trying to fit in with other teenagers; cool, spend time with friends, check out girls, look good for the girls and such. But instead, he's at the mall, in Bath & Body Works, returning stuff with his mom, who doesn't speak much english and who keeps embarrassing him. I feel him.
On the other hand, we have a mom, who is clearly in a need of help for her weakness, who is in a rush because perhaps, she needs to shop for food, go back home, and cook for the family so the family won't be starving at home (This is just an example). And while she's trying to save money in this horrible economy, she could get ripped off by the store and spent more money than she was supposed to, if her son didn't help her, all because she couldn't understand or speak English very well.
But my point is, how heartbreaking is it for a mother to know that her own child is embarrassed to be seen with her in public so the child keeps pretending like he/she doesn't know her?
She spends years and years, taking care of the child, running around the house, cooking and washing dishes and cleaing up, and now that she needs one little help from her own child, he/she is too embarrassed to be invovled.
Ridiculous.
Mothers have the hardest job in the world, they say.
Anyway, just a little incident that I was fascinated by. It made me want to be a better son and also made me more appreciative of my mother. Parents can embarrass their children at times but when you think about all the things they've done for the whole life of yours, NOTHING should stand in the way of treating parents how they are supposed to be treated. I just wanted to throw it out there because parents don't get enough love as us, children, get older and older. This incident got me a little intensed and upset.
> Sean Dreilinger @ Flickr
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