Shampoo
Shampoo
I never thought about the value of shampoo until I was a stay at home mom and money was tight. I clipped coupons, shopped sale racks, and I used the cheapest shampoo possible, whatever was on sale.
I had recently had a new baby, baby number four! I was feeling a little blue because I still had the baby weight, was not sleeping great, and lots of children to tend to. I decided to splurge and bought an expensive shampoo from the salon!
I loved this shampoo. It was like gold, expensive, rare, and wonderful. I made sure not to use too much so it would last a long time. It smelled great and I felt like it made my hair look fantastic. It was such a perk!
On this particular day, my bottle was starting to run low, below half. I was giving my three year old son a bath in my tub, when my new baby started to cry. I left him for a moment and dashed down the hall to get the baby. When I came back, I was aghast to see the lid off the bottle and my son holding the shampoo under the stream of water in the faucet. I felt anger rushing up inside me like a volcano ready to explode. My favorite shampoo was ruined. It was completely diluted with water.
Counting to ten before I spoke, I pushed back the anger. I calmly asked what he was doing. He turned to me with an amazing toddler smile and said, “Mommy, I know this is your very favorite shampoo. It was almost out, so I made you some more. Now you have a full bottle again!”
I never thought about the value of shampoo until I was a stay at home mom and money was tight. I clipped coupons, shopped sale racks, and I used the cheapest shampoo possible, whatever was on sale.
I had recently had a new baby, baby number four! I was feeling a little blue because I still had the baby weight, was not sleeping great, and lots of children to tend to. I decided to splurge and bought an expensive shampoo from the salon!
I loved this shampoo. It was like gold, expensive, rare, and wonderful. I made sure not to use too much so it would last a long time. It smelled great and I felt like it made my hair look fantastic. It was such a perk!
On this particular day, my bottle was starting to run low, below half. I was giving my three year old son a bath in my tub, when my new baby started to cry. I left him for a moment and dashed down the hall to get the baby. When I came back, I was aghast to see the lid off the bottle and my son holding the shampoo under the stream of water in the faucet. I felt anger rushing up inside me like a volcano ready to explode. My favorite shampoo was ruined. It was completely diluted with water.
Counting to ten before I spoke, I pushed back the anger. I calmly asked what he was doing. He turned to me with an amazing toddler smile and said, “Mommy, I know this is your very favorite shampoo. It was almost out, so I made you some more. Now you have a full bottle again!”
Hahaha! Too cute! and he really meant it as a way to help! Precious.
ReplyDeleteAww!! I love it!! I have definately had many situations happen like this my boys!! (ages 2 and 4) Its hard but if you take a breath before reacting, you realize how sweet and adorable your child is! :) Thanks for sharing the story!! :)
ReplyDeleteMay 15th, 2012
ReplyDeleteDear Ann Feldmann,
While reading your essay “Non-Fiction- Shampoo” by Ann Feldmann, I could not help but to giggle as I pictured the story being told. The essay is personal yet it is a story that every woman can relate to. I believe we all begin bargain shopping when we have children; most of us have to in order to survive financially! Whether it is learning to put our hair up in a pony-tail instead of using expensive hair product every day or giving up our shopping sprees, there are major sacrifices with being a mom! I love how the splurging you did to relieve stress was buying expensive shampoo, I can definitely relate to that! I have always used cheaper shampoo and conditioner in order to save a little bit of money and I get a little jealous when I see how my friends have hundreds of dollars’ worth of hair products in their cupboards.
I can tell after reading your essay, shampoo does not really matter at all to you. It matters as a sense of buying something that is only for you and enjoying that pleasure, while most everything is for the children now. However, it is obvious that your child melted your heart just by telling you they wanted to give you more shampoo! I am sure no matter what your children tell you, there is always laughter and a fulfilled feeling just by having them around you! Children absolutely can replace anything in the world just with their presence and innocence in life. Although I do not know you, I believe you would agree with that statement!
I hope you continue writing essays on stories about your children, I am sure there are so many more you could share! Moments like the one you shared can never be taken away and are such great memories to hold onto forever. I can picture so many of these moments with my kids, unfortunately they are not with me right now, but it is stories similar to yours that I continuously think of and laugh about to keep positive and happy for them. Children are such a blessing and come up with some of the funniest things; I wish we had a camcorder constantly recording when they are little! I hope you continue enjoying the great times with your children and will continue sharing them! Thank you for your great writing.
Sincerely,
Lora Hardiman
Maddysmom1014@yahoo.com