One day I told him that we needed
to do some shopping that night. I would have liked to purchase a pair of new shoes for him due to his
feet having outgrown his current shoes. In
addition, I would have liked
do a bit of shopping for myself as my
facial cleanser and perfume
were almost used up. On the way to the shopping
mall, I had explained to him that we would go to
the mall and stay in the mall for probably 45 minutes because we needed to
purchase those. I also told him that I would buy him a Papa
Beard cream puff as a reward
if he behaved well. As his mother, I know he is not always patient while
shopping so I communicated with him and set his expectations beforehand.
After we arrived at the shopping
mall, we headed to the shoe shop. I was hoping
we could purchase his shoes, my facial cleanser and the perfume as planned. After
we arrived at the mall, I quite enjoyed the window-shopping. I haven’t done any shopping in a mall in the last 2-3 months
except in the grocery store. I always think
shopping can give me a sense of relaxation and
pleasure. After we arrived at the shoe shop, in
less than 3 minutes, John bowed down; then he said
he was not feeling well. I was worried about him. I thought he might have caught
the flu as I heard that some kids had caught the flu in his school recently. It might be flu season.
We quickly left the shop. I found a
chair nearby. I asked him to take a sit and have a rest. After two minutes, he
behaved normally. Then he noticed there was a
Toys R Us at the left corner of the mall, his face suddenly glowed with
excitement. He asked me: “Mom, can we go to the Toys R Us?”
I had a big question mark in my
mind and I asked: “John, are you feeling OK now?” John said: “Yes, Mom, I am very good.”
During the 30 minutes’ shopping in
the Toys R Us, he behaved very patiently. He was excited and
interested in lots of toys. We finished purchasing a small Lego and then we went
back home. We did not go back to the mall to purchase his shoes and my stuff
that night.
Eventually I did online shopping and
purchased the stuff from Amazon.ca.
This May, our family went to Hawaii
to have a vacation. My husband and I were celebrating our wedding anniversary, as well as my upcoming birthday.
After we spent lots of time sightseeing, swimming, taking tours and enjoying
the delicious local food, I said I would like to
go to a mall to do some shopping.
John looked at me and said: “Can
you finish shopping in 5 minutes?” I shook my head and said:” John, five
minutes is too short. I even cannot walk from
the entrance to the shop I want to browse.”
He then said: “How about 10
minutes, Mom?”
I shook my head again, he said:” 15
minutes?”
I shook my head again; he thought about it
seriously and spoke with a determined voice:”
OK, Mom. You can shop there for 30 minutes.”
I asked my husband and John to have
some ice-cream nearby; then I went into the
shopping mall, I hoped they could eat the ice-cream slowly, or purchase more ice-creams.
After around 20 minutes, I received
a text message. It was my boy. He said: “Mom, we finished eating the ice-cream. Where
are you? Can we go swimming now?”
Another time, we went to
Bellingham. We planned to pick up a parcel, have a buffet, fill up with gas and do a bit of
shopping. After we stepped into a shopping mall, I asked my husband and John to
go to the boy’s and men’s section as my husband
wanted to purchase something for John and
himself.
But to my sadness, John followed me
to the women’s section. When I was browsing women’s shoes, he said “Mom, Daddy said you had a lot of shoes already. You are not
supposed to purchase any new shoes.”
Then I went to the women’s clothing section. John said again: “Mom, Daddy said you had too many clothes. You are not
supposed to purchase any new clothes until you outgrow them; then you need new clothes.”
I told him: “John, you don’t need
to accompany me. You should go with your dad and choose your clothes and shoes
in the boy’s and men’s section.”
John said: “No Mom, I don’t need any clothes and shoes. I just feel
that it’s too boring to shop here. And it is a waste of my time.”
After the 3 stories, I realized
that the first time he was not sick in the shopping mall .He was just not
interested in shopping for clothing. It seems
that he cannot understand how enjoyable it is for
me to do some shopping. He is only interested in
shopping for toys but nothing else.
However, I changed my mind again
after we went to Seattle last weekend.
We went to Seattle to visit our
friends with another family and stayed in Seattle one night.
On
the second day, after we had dinner in a buffet we were planning to head back
to Vancouver. Since it was quite early to go back home, my friend and I thought
we still had time to do some shopping. Then we went to a shopping mall nearby
with our friend’s family.
It was a big shopping mall with
lots of clothes. To my surprise, this time John was very patient in accompanying
his best friends – J Y, who is a 9 year old
girl. They have been friends for 3 years. Both of them think
of each other as their BFF (best-friend-forever).
We spent almost 1 hour in the mall.
I noticed that during the hour, John was very
patient holding the shopping cart and following JY all the time.
After we finished shopping in this
mall, we headed to another mall which was very
close. The second mall was
another big shopping mall which sold clothing,
bedding, gifts and lots of stuff except toys.
The girl JY was quite happy about the
continued shopping. How about my John? He behaved like a young gentleman. All
the time, he held the shopping cart, followed his friend and assisted his
friend to do the shopping.
“John, can you grab me a size 9 for this skirt? This is too small.” JY said
to John.
“Sure, I will be there in a minute.” Quickly John ran away to pick the
size for his friend.
“John, do you think this T-shirt
looks good on me? Or can you pick something else
for me?” JY said to John.
“Humph,
it looks perfect. I can pick another one for you.” John said immediately.
That day, John was the best shopping companion
ever. I could not
believe it was John. Did
he hate shopping? What a perfect shopping companion
John was to his friend. He even had absolutely no complains about shopping that
day!
His friend influenced him so much.
That day he brought his Qiaohu –his best-stuffed buddy since he was a year old, on the trip, because his
friend JY usually brought her Momo- her best
stuffed buddy.
When we arrived at home, he woke up
from sleep.
Suddenly he realized something; he panicked and cried: “I left my Qiaohu in the shopping
cart!”
After we calmed him down and asked
him which shopping cart his Qiaohu was left in,
John said it should be in the 2nd mall’s shopping cart. He had hoped his Qiaohu
could enjoy some shopping as he did!
After,
we finally found his Qiaohu in our bag. He became relieved and hugged his
Qiaohu just like a little dad, as his friend JY
treated his Momo just like a little mom.
See how
much John was influenced by his friend?