When I was preparing to be a mom, I expected the joys and the challenges, but I didn’t count on all the embarrassment.

Being a parent demands patience, resilience, and a large capacity for mortification.

I recall chairing a serious business meeting soon after returning from maternity leave.  I was emphatically making my points, somewhat proud of myself for so quickly getting back into the swing of office life again.   I didn’t realize until everyone had left the room that my blouse was covered in spit-up the entire time.

Then, in the following years came more moments that led to embarrassment...

My husband recalls a time when he was at the gym and my daughter Elle, needed to use the potty.  They went into the Men’s locker room, but all the stalls were occupied:

Elle (with volume knob set to “maximum”): Daddy, Why are these men sitting down? Boys don’t sit down to potty!  Are they pooping, Daddy? ARE THEY POOPING?!?

My husband (embarrassed at his daughter’s announcement of what those muscle men are doing in the stalls): Uh, I don’t know, Elle…And uh, let’s use our “inside voice” ok?

Elle (with certainty, and no adjustment to volume): They are definitely pooping, Daddy.    Otherwise, they’d be using the “yerminals.”

Another time, Elle was potty-training and we were entertaining several friends—including some work colleagues--at our place. Throughout the day, after each guest exited the bathroom, Elle interrogated them (in front of other guests) about whether they had just pee-ed or poop-ed… “because if you poop, you get an M&M”.  She seemed to have an internal honing device for who went in/out of our bathroom because no guest escaped unscathed.  When one guest affably admitted, “yes, I pooped”, she handed him an M&M and told him, “I’m very proud of you.”

I’ve learned quickly that parenting requires a sense of humor or else acknowledgement that motherhood sometimes involves suffering minor indignities at the hands of our children.  Perhaps I should just brace myself for the moments when my kids embarrass me and accept that it’s a fact of being a mom.  Afterall, if karma has anything to do with it, I am sure at some point they will be mortified by my behavior (probably when they’re teenagers), and I will be just be as problematic for their social dignity as they are for mine.

When was the last time your child unknowingly embarrassed you?