The Morning I Discovered My Son and His Girlfriend in His Bedroom
Dropping her designer luggage onto the kitchen floor, she demanded my son show her around the house. This was my introduction to my teenage son’s first serious girlfriend. Later, she would seem surprised that her luggage was still on the kitchen floor where she had left it. The depth of my patience was tested again at dinnertime after the young people in the house were instructed to come and peel vegetables. Entering the kitchen ahead of his siblings, my son tucked his too-long hair behind his left ear – a nervous tick he had developed in pre-school. “Mum?” “Yes, son?” “Er, Jasmine* is not used to helping out in the kitchen.” “Excuse me, son?” “It’s just that where she comes from they have a man who does all of that.” Turning from the stove, I resisted the urge to grab my son’s own man-bits before demanding he go straighten out Little Miss Designer. However, more hair tugging and an unusual stillness in his frame stopped me. I remembered only too well the flailing impotence of my own husband when caught between me and his ‘difficult’ mother. I didn’t want that no-win misery for my son. I took a deep breath. Child of the Universe Magazine
