The Boomerang Factor

My Mom likes to tell me the story about a visit we took to JcPenny's when my sister and I were younger. Apparently, as a matter of coincidence, both my sister and I had black eyes at the time. You don't need to call DCFS, I am sure we gave them to each other. In the store we were screaming our heads off and demanding that our parents by us something or another and of course they refused. My sister and I didn't like this so in the wisdom of youth we start screaming "Daddy, don't hit us again," or something to that affect. Of course my father walked out of the store absolutely mortified. For the record, he never laid a finger on us.

This leads to reason #37744 to freak out about being a parent. I have heard stories recently about raised eyebrows in stores when Chinese children with non-Chinese parents start to make a ruckus in public as kids are wont to do. I can just see Maya having a meltdown in the middle of Target and starting to scream, "I want my Mommy!" as I am trying to drag her out of the store to calm her down.

With my luck I am sure I will be arrested for kidnapping my own daughter. Some suggestions are to always carry around family pictures, get Maya a state ID at a young age or even shrink and laminate the adoption certification. I guess what goes around comes around.