The day I almost went to the slammer...

Out grocery shopping one day with my son in tow…as the trip drags, Nikhil starts to look like he has ants in his pants – the crisps have been eaten, the juice has been downed and watching the aisles of produce is no longer fun. He wants out of the shopping trolley and he wants it NOW! When my threatening looks and silent threats are ignored I let him out – and he makes a run for it…before I can catch him he bolts right out of the supermarket to some of those coin operated toys on the other side of the floor. Keeping him in my line of vision, I park my overflowing trolley to the side and try to catch the attention of the elusive customer service folks. As I explain my predicament to the CS guy, I see Nikhil happily playing on the coin operated Bob the Builder. A lady is leaning against the wall behind the toy deep in conversation with him. It appears that my son is giving her a full dissertation on some subject…probably some Bob the Builder episode. After the CS guy rolls my shopping cart away for safekeeping, I slowly walk over to where my son is, knowing that a meltdown about to happen. There is a toddler playing on truck nearby and her parents are clicking away at her ever-changing expression. The woman, who seemed to have become my son’s soul mate, patted him on the head and walked away. Nikhil sees me coming and pretends to ignore me. I walk up to him, fake smile and all and say HI…can we go home now? He ignores me and since I am running out of time, I grab him in a hug and try to get him out of his seat. The cheeky little fellow screams - Help, help, somebody… help me!! I have heard it all before so I ignore it. As I move away with this kicking kid in my arms, the mum of the kid playing on the truck nearby steps right up to me, her face inches from mine and ask in a loud voice – Can I help you? People stop and stare and I wonder if it is illegal to scold your kid in S’pore. I have no idea what her problem is, till I realize that she is looking around for the person who SHE thinks is the mother of my son. Of course the minute the lady is in my face; Nikhil's scared out of his wits and is now clinging to me with his face buried in my neck asking me to take him home. While I rub his back, I assure the lady that I am indeed the mother and this was just my son creating a scene. I thank her for being so vigilant and try to leave the scene as quickly as possible with a very subdued toddler in tow…

Moral of the story – If your kids don’t look like you, carry ID proof!