It was the Mother’s Day morning tea at kindy. I’d never been to one, so I wasn’t sure what to expect.
All I knew was that Ming was excited about a “poortrit” he’d done of me. “It’s deesplayed,” he said, twinkly-eyed.
Well, five-year-olds are always twinkly, aren’t they? Never devious, surely. Or so I thought.
The day arrived and I wandered through the classroom, searching the walls for an image of myself. Having given me a general tour of the room, Ming had abandoned me to go and play.
We were all given a cup of tea and asked to sit down while the children passed around plates of scones, cake, timtams and twisties.
Once everyone was comfortable, the kids were summoned to sing their Mother’s Day song. By then I’d found Dillan’s and Danny’s mothers and we all got a bit choked up when those twelve five-year-olds sang the last line – “Mum, you aaaarrrre the best.”
Once the performance was over, we were then allowed to roam free once again. Mrs Segal told us all to take special notice of the wonderful portraits drawn by the children.
“Have you found yours yet?” Danny’s mum, Heidi, asked me, grinning strangely.
“It’s a real winner, Julie,” said Dillan’s mother, Sandra, giggling.
“No, I haven’t found it. Ming never stops drawing – he’s become very accurate,” I said, pleased they were impressed.
“Oh, it’s definitely very good,” said Heidi, with what seemed decidedly like a smirk.
“It might not be quite accurate though,” said Sandra.
Were they being sarcastic about my little Picasso? How dare they! But all I managed was a defensive, “Oh, well, he’s really keen, he’s trying hard. Maybe he just didn’t get exactly what he was supposed to do.”
Their laugher still echoes.
Heidi and Sandra took me by each arm and led me back to the portrait wall. Suddenly, several of Ming’s friends surrounded me. One of them whispered to me, “It’s the next one, Mrs Goyder,” then ran off, laughing. I looked around to find Ming behind me, pointing and smiling proudly, but somewhat sheepishly.
I looked back at the drawings, still unable to find me, until Dillan grabbed my hand and took me directly to Ming’s ‘Mum’ portrait.
The shock of it! The freckles were exaggerated, but I put that down to the Ming’s artistic immaturity. The slash of red lipstick was crookedly accurate though.
It was the thick, arrow-like eyebrows that struck me most. They were like backwards ticks. I’d seen Ming do this a thousand times when he was drawing his monsters.
That evening I tactfully complimented Ming on his superb portrait. “You made me look extremely cross,” I mentioned, pretending to be light-hearted.
“You got cross with me.”
“When?”
“When I was ownee two – with the pillow.”
“That was ages ago!” I couldn’t believe he was bringing up the incident when I had banged my head against the wall and told him to put the stuffing back into the pillow.
“Payback,” he said smugly.
jmgoyder 
hmm – kids’ memories are awfully long–of course they dont depict the millions of times we hugged and praised and loved the stuffing out of them
haha! Now he’s a teen he still has that long memory for unfortunate stuff – argh!
been there done that–my boys are in their twenties–sometimes they are mellower (sometime not)
With just the one son I have no other to compare him with – often wonder what a daughter would be like!
my eldest son told me that I would go crazy if I had a daughter — but must admit, I went a little crazy (most of the time good crazy) having sons–he knows though that if I had a daughter who wore revealing clothes or got tattoos that show I would have more than a hard time–but I am a girl and I don’t think I was that hard to raise
I have three neices who are the most wonderful girls (women now) in the world and a great neice who is adorable–so I cannot imagine it would be any more difficult than boys and their sometimes angst
Love it, Julie 😀 Out of the mouths of babes…
Those eyebrows were scary!
Never to worry in the end we all just remember the good times…. sometimes too late… but I’m sure he now remembers the good times to…
It’s funny now all these years later! You are right.
I love this story – it seems so funny now, but I’m sure it made you feel funny back then.
All the other portraits looked benign – mine was like a monster!
That’s funny, and sweet, Julie. I have three boys (men now) and such fond memories of their childhood. It passes so quickly.
Brilliant Julie. That made me laugh out loud
Oh my. What a smart boy! Great story Julie. Thanks.
Gotcha! 🙂
I learnt the hard way too never underestimate the deviousness and sense of humour of a five year old!
They say if you want an accurate profile of who you are ask your kids! 😉
Briliant! You’ve just got to love his five-year-old confidence. 🙂
Oh — how adorable is this story. It goes to show the things that stand out in a child’s mind!! xo
Like an elephant, doesn’t sound like he forgets anything 😉
that was adorable!!!!
Hah! Kids.
I can’t imagine what Ming might do now if he decided to pay you back for something else done when he was two! lol
My GS sums the three of us adults by the music we play: Pa (husband) plays Happy Music (60s pop), Dad (son) plays Angry Music (heavy metal), while I play Sad Music. It sort of summed each of us up.
That sounds a bit like us!
So cute!
Sometimes it is amazing what kids remember…………….and what they will do to get payback………lol If only you had a photo to share with us………………
What an ornery, little boy! I love it. My daughter asked me, every day, when I walked her to her pre-school class to walk way behind her….so that no one would know that I was her mother. Can’t kids make us feel loved?
Oh your daughter – that is hilarious!
OMG!More laughter.Don’t get mad get even, right Ming? I wish you had kept the picture but maybe you did and you are not sharing with us, eh Jules?.
I probably have it somewhere!
Scary Ming – and the battle of wills continues… 🙂
When my niece was in kindergarten, she drew a picture for parents’ day – the whole family, naked
Now that trumps it!
Love this story! I always looked like Cousin It in my boys’ drawings 😀
HAHA! I love this. Such a chip off the old block I’d say.
They really see things differently than we do, don’t they? Cute story!
Quite an adorable story!
Some things are never forgotten. 😉
Wonderful story! *huge grin*