Show and BLUSH
Claire Morrison, 28, from Dundee, was mortified by what her daughter took to school for show and tell...
Bouncing down the stairs, my daughter Eve, six, carried her school bag in her hand. ‘Are you nearly ready?’ I asked, checking my watch again.
‘Mummy, it’s show and tell at school!’ she grinned.
Typical! I thought to myself. We were already running late and she waited until then to tell me!
‘Today? Have you got anything you can take?’ I asked, frantically putting on her jacket.
‘I’m going to take my dancing trophy in!’ she buzzed.
‘No, Eve, can you find something else please?’ I asked.
Taking her fragile trophy into a class full of six-year-olds was a recipe for disaster and I could already see the tears if something happened to it.
She sprinted upstairs and came back grinning.
‘I’ve got something!’ she giggled.
‘Great!’ I called, and ushered her out of the door.
Her class had show and tell lessons a lot and Eve would usually take in one of her toys, so I thought she would have just grabbed something from her bedroom.
‘Have a great day at school,’ I called, dropping her off and dashing to get to work on time.
At lunchtime, my phone started buzzing in my pocket, but I was so busy, I forgot to check it until later on.
Later, I whipped it out on the bus as I was heading to pick up Eve, and I saw that I had a message from her teacher.
‘Oh no, what’s she gone and
done now?’ I sighed. Eve has brought her funny pen into school. I don’t think it was hers. I’ve asked her to put it back in her bag, it read, with an embarrassed face emoji at the end. A pen? I thought, puzzled. I didn’t know what she could have taken in. I was amazed that they would ask her to put it away, but I wracked by brain thinking of what it could have been. I decided that Eve must have taken in her octopus pen. When I got to her school gates, I picked Eve up to take her to her dancing. ‘How was school today?’ I asked, grabbing her hand. ‘Good,’ she said, skipping alongside me. ‘And how was show and tell?’ I prodded, trying to get to the bottom of the pen mystery. ‘I wasn’t allowed to go, my teacher didn’t want to see the toy I brought in,’ she shrugged. ‘Oh, that’s a shame,’ I said, trying not to make a big deal out of it. After I dropped Eve off at her dance class, I decided to have a look in her bag. Opening it up, I felt my cheeks suddenly burning up and shook my head in disbelief. Her little pen for show and tell had actually been my own pink rabbit vibrator! Eve had always liked to rummage, but I hadn’t considered that when looking for something for show and tell she would go looking in my bedside drawer! As soon as she was back from her class, I had to find out what she thought it was. ‘What is this you took into school?’ I stuttered, holding the bunny in my hand and trying to compose myself. ‘It’s my funny bunny pen! I found it and wanted to show everyone,’ she grinned. ‘But this is Mummy’s pen, you shouldn’t have taken it,’ I blushed. ‘Sorry. Can I play with it, just tonight? Please?’ Eve begged. ‘No, sweetie,’ I said. ‘It’s not for children.’ The thought of her running around with my vibrator made my cheeks burn.
‘Can I see it talk at least?’ she begged me. ‘Talk?’ I asked, puzzled. ‘It needs batteries, so it must talk!’ Eve said. I was mortified. ‘This is my special pen, I need to take it,’ I smiled. ‘Fine,’ she huffed. I took the bunny upstairs and shoved it into my cupboard, hidden behind piles of clothes.
Then I called my partner David, 38, bursting to tell him.
‘You’ll never believe what Eve did today,’ I cringed.
He was stunned to silence when I told him before he burst out laughing.
‘She took your vibrator! How did she even find it?’ he replied, dumbfounded.
‘We need to find a better hiding place, that’s for sure!’ I laughed.
We had kept it stowed away in the drawer next to my bed, but my little troublemaker had still found a way to get her hands on the bunny.
‘I need to tell people what happened, this is too good not to share!’ I said, giggling.
So I wrote a message on Facebook, and even popped on a picture of the hopping culprit.
‘That’ll give my friends a laugh
anyway,’ I chuckled to David. I started to get likes and comments from my friends, telling me how mortified they were for me.
My sister even sent me a video of herself laughing to show how hilarious she found it.
People I didn’t know were tagging their mates and leaving comments, and within a few days it had been shared over 6,000 times!
‘Can you believe how big this has gone?’ I gasped.
I thought about taking it down, but I found it too funny to remove.
‘So many people are commenting!’ David said.
He read nearly every one.
I scrolled through the comments and saw lots of people sending messages of support and telling me that it had happened to them as well.
There were a few comments of people telling me that I wasn’t a good mum if I was leaving that somewhere that it could be found, but I tried to ignore them.
People said that I shouldn’t have left a vibrator anywhere that a child could get to, but I like to see the funny side of it.
I text her teacher a few weeks later to say how embarrassed I was, but luckily, she saw the funny side of it as well, and I’m so glad she noticed before Eve started presenting it to her class!
Other mums told me it happened to them too!