Every mom has these stories. Your kid starts talking loudly about his penis at the library. Your daughter points and asks what happened to that man's legs. Usually, I don't get embarrassed by this kind of stuff. It comes with the territory. No harm done.
But this summer, my sweet little girl raised the bar. We were showering after a swim at the local pool. Another woman, whom I recognized as one of the nuns up at the abbey, was showering next to us. She smiled at Annabel and asked, "Did you have fun in the swimming pool?"
Annabel did her little bashful routine--lowering her head and swinging her arms. Then she laughed as if to herself, pointed at the naked nun, and declared, "You're a fat little lady!"
But she didn't stop there. Oh no. While I stood there momentarily stunned, my girl continued gleefully: "Fatty-fat-fat!"
Now, this woman was short and a bit squat, but she was definitely not huge. Just a bit pudgy.
It took me a moment to recover, but by the time I had bent down to Annabel and explained that that was not a nice thing to say, the nun had finished her shower and was quickly toweling off. By the time we got to the changing room, she was gone. I wish I had had a chance to at least smile apologetically at her.
As for the "fatty-fat-fat," which seems especially cruel, not to mention out of the blue, I've pondered where she might have picked up that phrase. The only thing I can think of is the Dutch series of books featuring a cat named Dikkie Dik, which would roughly translate to Fatty Fat. Michiel and I find that quite funny and have been known to laugh about it. She must have picked it up from us.
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