Embarrassment Achievement

It is a well-known fact that parents are capable of embarrassing their children easily and quickly.  However, these incidents usually take place in public, when the child is afraid of being seen with their parent.

I managed to embarrass Ane yesterday without even leaving the house.

I was working on many and varied Christmas projects while the Webmaster set up our VCR/DVD recorder to record my grandmother’s copy of the Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Nutcracker movie on to DVD.  We’ve only had the tape for three or four years in our house, so it was time to get around to this.  (And if you’re reading this, Grandma, it’s coming back to your house to stay now.)

We took Ane to see the Nutcracker almost two years ago, on her sixth birthday.  She would love to go again, but, as her father pointed out, she’s getting to do so many other things for her birthday that adding in ballet tickets was not going to happen.  She conceded that point, and decided to watch the movie in her ballerina costume.

There is something about watching the ballet that brings out the inner ballerina that exists in most girls.  And I’m still reasonable flexible, even if my center of gravity has changed somewhat after giving birth three times, so as Ane was watching the movie, I pirouetted across the living room for fun.

My daughter instantly cried, “MOM!  Don’t DO that!  You’re embarrassing me!!”

I turned around and looked at her.  “What?  I can’t dance in my own living room?  It’s not like we have company over or anything.”

“Someone might see you through the window!”  she hissed.

“Who?  Zoe?”  I asked, amused.  Zoe is our next-door neighbor’s chocolate lab, who spends a lot of time in their fenced front yard.

“Anybody!!”

I looked at the Webmaster.  He shrugged his shoulders.  He’s embarrassed Ane by dancing and singing in public, and that’s because he enjoys seeing her reaction.  I think I just set the bar really high for him.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 12th, 2011 at 3:09 am and is filed under Children, Holidays, Mommyhood.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed and Both comments and pings are currently closed.