"What Do You Say?"

I just have to share this awkward “Mom Moment” that I had recently. About a week or so ago, I was in the company of some of my family members, including some cousins and my grandmother. At one point of the visit, my grandmother said to one of my cousins, “So, did you get anything for your birthday?” Now, I recognized immediately that my grandmother was trying to be subtle and inquire as to whether or not my cousin received the birthday card and birthday check that Gram had sent to her. This was not as evident to my cousin who said, “What?” Gram repeated the question. (I know Gram well enough to know that had she received a call or a written thank you, she would not be asking this question…) My cousin answers, “Oh, yeah, I got it.” So Gram says, “Did you get something nice with it?” And my cousin replies, “I haven’t gotten to the bank to cash it yet.” And awkwardly (to me), that was the end of the conversation!

Here’s the “Mom Moment” – I was sitting right next to her, taking this all in, and I was having to physically restrain myself from saying what I would have said if she were my child, “What do you say?” To which my child would respond, “Thank you, Grandma!” Now sometimes I wish that she (my daughter, not my cousin) were better about saying it on her own without the prompt, but I am very hopeful that with the occasional reminder, by the time she is in her mid-late twenties, she will be able to say it on her own in situations like this!

I’m going to keep plugging away and hope that “the magic words” become second nature to my girls – wish me luck!