LOH #179: Mummy's Trust

Growing up to become an adult, I have come to appreciate the kind of home I was raised in. My father was away on business most of the time, but one constant fixture in my life was my mother. She was strict but loving at the same time, I, personally, knew I could talk to her about anything without getting harassed about it like my friends used to complain about their parents. Although I was a daddy's girl, I was also mummy's pet, but the relationship wasn't always as easy as with my dad. Lol

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Anyway, one thing I love about my mum is she always wants to know our friends. Do you have friends? Bring them over, she didn't care if they were boys or girls as long as the visit was supervised by my various aunties that lived with us, when we were young, if she wasn't around. So it was quite shocking to our neighbor's mum, who was especially strict with her kids, to see the female children in our house being visited by male friends and being allowed to enter the house.

My mum and the woman were really close, and they called themselves ‘Sisters ’. Haha. One memorable event was when Sister came to visit my mum and after exchanging pleasantries and talking about other things, Sister went down to the true intention of her visit.

“My dear sister” she told my mum, “I would like to discuss something important with you”

Even though as children we weren't allowed to be in the living room when we had visitors, we would sometimes loiter around in the corridors, especially if we found the visitor interesting. And we always found sister's visits fascinating, for reasons I won't mention here.

“It's about this our children, I noticed that boys come to the house to visit them when you're not around. You know your boys are not around?” she continued.

“I don't want these girls to become corrupted and end up wayward you know”

My sister and I burst into giggles in the corridor, wayward and corrupt were two of Sister's favorite words.

“I understand your concerns my dear,” we heard our mum reply
“But you don't need to worry. I always make sure my sisters or husband's sisters are at home to look after them. Besides, you see them most times coming here with other girls, it's not as if it's only boys that visit my daughters?”

“Well, er… Yes” sister replied.

“Exactly” my mum continued, “You also see them coming with school bags right?”

“That's why I'm concerned they may bring in things to corrupt these girls” sister replied

My sister and I tried to suppress our laughter.

“Believe me sister, usually they do school work then try to help each other out with difficult subjects at school. Occasionally, they watch TV or play games” my mother replied, talking slowly but applying pressure to her voice. It was the voice she used when she was trying to get a point across clearly.

“Okay, I was just concerned, that's all” sister replied.

“Thanks for your care, but I trust my girls. They know how to make the right decisions. I'm blessed with smart children” my mum replied.

The funny thing was that these boys Sister was always referring to were other neighbors children, and she knew them and their parents. Her sons were also part of the boys who came to visit too, and my sister and I frequently went to their houses to return these visits as well.

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After Sister left, we ran to hug our mother and to thank her for trusting us.

“How long have you girls been hiding in the corridor?” she asked us, faking a frown.

We knew we had been caught and couldn't lie, so we confessed. She twisted our ears until we begged for mercy, then compensated us with drinks and snacks. I've never forgotten that moment, and we made sure not to break that trust until we became adults.

I think that event made both of us stay on the right path even when we had too much freedom to do as we pleased.