‘Mummy, what does shit mean?’
Nancy pulled her sunglasses off her face and peered at her son, innocently sitting at the end of her sun lounger, his eyes wide in wonderment and clearly unaware of the impact of the word that had just erupted from his mouth. ‘Where did you hear that word?’
‘On a review,’ he countered, still not flinching.
‘A review? What kind of review?’ The blistering sunshine was beating down onto her lightly pink skin, drying off the beads of water from where she’d recently vacated the pool.
‘On YouTube.’
Bloody YouTube, she cursed under her breath. Even with the child filters on, Jack had a way of finding stuff he shouldn’t. The kid was a technical wizard.
‘Show me,’ she said, sitting up and putting her glasses on the table to her left. She took the iPad and clicked play. The video was reviewing a television programme that Jack liked to watch on the discovery channel about ancient structures. The review was presented by teenagers and seemed to be a mock review, rather than a real one. And then, about two minutes in, she heard it.
‘If you like watching programmes about shit that was built years ago – then this will be for you.’
Nancy sighed. How was she supposed to filter videos that snuck in things like this – it was impossible. Maybe she should be watching all the videos first before letting Jack? Although, how practical was that in the world of parenting?
‘Sweetie, just delete that one, I don’t want you watching it. Try to stay to the ones that are done by children. You know the reviews you like to watch that KIDZtV do? Those are fine.’
Nancy handed the iPad back to Jack just as Harriet returned from the bar clutching two cocktails and a bottle of water.
‘Ok Mummy, but what does shit actually mean?’
Harriet snorted. ‘Jeez, what sort of conversation have I just walked back into? I don’t fancy your choice of topic to discuss with your seven-year-old, Nance.’ And then Harriet laughed because they both knew that this would be the kind of slip up she would normally make with her children.
‘Don’t!’ Nancy warned and then turned back to Jack. ‘Sweetheart, it’s a bad word – a swear word. I don’t want you to worry about what it means.’
‘OK.’ He put his head phones on but then took them off again and looked back at her. ‘It feels funny though.’
Nancy frowned. ‘What does?’
‘The word.’
‘I don’t understand.’
‘The word – feels funny on my mouth when I say it. Shh-i-tttt,’ he said as he broke the word down.
‘Oh my word…’ Nancy put her head in her hands as the woman sitting next to them with her husband glanced over to them as Jack continued his vocabulary building.
‘Shh-i-tttt, shh-i-tttt, shit!’
‘Ok that’s enough Jack!’ Nancy placed a hand on his arm to bring him out of his daydream and she could hear Harriet cackling next to her. ‘I don’t want you saying it anymore; it’s a naughty word, OK?’
Jack nodded and then resumed his viewing at the end of her sun lounger. Nancy looked over to Harriet who was trying to contain her amusement but doing a terrible job at it. ‘Don’t you start!’
‘Babe, he is hilarious. I love that about him – he has no idea what he’s saying.’ She quoted him: ‘Shh-i-tttt ! He’s doing his phonics bless him! I think his teacher would be impressed.’
‘Ooh my word, could you imagine:
(Mock teacher voice) Jack, what did you get up to over your half term?
(Lowers voice) I practised my phonics whilst I was on holiday.
(Teacher voice) Oh how wonderful, what did you learn?
(Lowers voice) Shh – I – ittt – SHIT!’
Harriet threw her head back onto her lounger as she cackled again. ‘I would pay money to see that actually happen.’
‘Shut up!’ Nancy pulled the cocktail that was hers from Harriet’s hand. ‘Give me this, I bloody need it.’
Nancy sipped her drink but then noticed the woman next to them still looking over disapprovingly. She could see her looking at Jack, sitting on the end of the lounger, his head in his iPad, and wrapped up in several layers of clothing even though it was 40 degrees and blazing sunshine. She felt the anger begin to bubble up inside, but she suppressed it. It wasn’t worth the argument.
‘Is there something we could help you with? Maybe you’re wondering where my friend’s son got his beautiful cap from with the little flap at the back to protect his neck? Did you like the orange colour or was it the polar bear on the front that got you interested?’ Harriet challenged.
‘Hari, leave it. It’s fine.’ Nancy knew what her friend was like. Fiercely protective of those around her which was a beautiful trait to have, but highly embarrassing when she didn’t know when to let things go. Once she was on one, that was it.
‘I wasn’t staring at your child,’ the woman replied, defiantly.
‘Hmm, well I beg to disagree with you. Is there a problem?’
Harriet was now sitting up on her lounger and Nancy put her hand on her arm to warn her to chill out. Jack was none the wiser, still fixated on his screen.
‘Mummy, did you see my jump? I jumped right in and the water went in my face,’ Isla giggled as she ran over from the toddler pool in front of them, her little pink tutu style swimming costume flapping as she ran, mimicking her curls.
‘This is my child if you wanted to have another object to stare at and my baby is in the crèche – he’s only one so does a lot of screaming if you wanted some more noise?’
Nancy gently pulled Isla over to her and sat her on her lap as she looked confused and a little worried at her mum’s tone – she could hear she was angry.
‘I wasn’t staring at your child; I was simply appalled by his choice of language.’
‘Oh, shit? You didn’t like the word shit?’
‘It’s no wonder he speaks like that if he’s surrounded by people like you. And with his head in his iPad – he should be out playing, not sat with that thing. That’s what’s wrong with parents of today, letting their offspring spend hours on tablets and computers. In my day we were all outside climbing trees and playing tag.’
‘Are you for real, lady?’
‘Hari, leave it.’
‘No, Nance, this woman thinks she can just sit here and be all bloody judgemental about our children and our parenting when she knows nothing about our situations.’ She turned around to fully face the woman. ‘For your information, this woman never swears in front of her son, he has heard the word from elsewhere and simply asked what it meant. As a good parent, my friend didn’t shout or berate him; she simply explained that it was a bad word and that he didn’t need to know what it meant. And because he is a child, he commented on how the word felt and was experimenting with his sounds and learning. He wasn’t abusive in the way he said it and quite frankly, I don’t think he said it too loudly either.’ The woman stayed defiant but Nancy could see a flicker of regret over her face as she was clearly now realising she’d picked the wrong parent to judge. ‘And yes, he is on an iPad, but did you ever stop to think that there might be a reason for that?’
‘What reason could you possibly have to—’
‘Oh, I see,’ Harriet laughed excessively over the top. ‘You’re a professional child psychologist, I didn’t realise. My mistake!’
‘I’m not a professional—’
‘Exactly! You’re not – so why don’t you keep your nose out of our business!’
Nancy leaned forward so the woman could see her face. ‘My son has autism. He struggles in social situations and doesn’t like loud noises – like the screaming you can hear where the other kids are having fun. And he doesn’t like changes in routine – like this holiday. So for him to feel comfortable, he likes to watch videos on his iPad and use his headphones so that the noise isn’t too much. The alternative would be a breakdown, and I’m guessing you wouldn’t appreciate that either, or for my son to feel anxious and very poorly. And I’m not willing to do that. He’s not hurting you by sitting here minding his own business, so I would appreciate you giving him the same respect and leaving him be without feeling the need to stare at him.’
Her heart was racing. There had been numerous times over the years where people had stared and given judgemental looks to Nancy and Jack and she’d never addressed the issue. But today was different, this holiday felt different. She still had her concerns about him and his future, but she felt stronger in her approach to coping with it. Seeing Pete before she’d left had put a finality on the last few years, and now she felt like she was moving forward. Yes, she’d had a hiccup on their first day with Jack’s incident with the kids’ club lady, but she was starting to realise new things about her son every day. This in itself was making her feel stronger. When she heard Harriet defending Jack, she felt this overwhelming urge to take over and put the record straight. Because she wasn’t ashamed of Jack.
She and Harriet clearly had different ways of handling things though.
The woman gathered up her things and began to tell her husband that they were moving away from this revolting family and something about how autism wasn’t even a real thing and in her day…
‘In your bloody day lady, everyone probably had their heads stuck in their arses and a closed mind. Times have changed – deal with it!’
The woman huffed and put her belongs in her bag, waiting for her husband to get up.
There was a silence between the two groups of people and the tension was high but Nancy glared at Harriet to warn her to stay quiet now – keep the moral high ground after their speech. But Isla didn’t seem to get the memo.
‘Nancy, what does arse mean?’
Harriet burst out laughing as Nancy put her head in her hands.