Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Mother Knows Best

See, see, my mother says that there's always plane crashes during Chinese 7th month. And that they occur in 3s. There's been SIX this month. Extra powerful this year.

Mum also says that showering after dinner gives you a big belly. I'd post a picture of mine, but then my blog wouldn't be pretty anymore. So trust me here.

--UPDATE--

Since I'm on the subject of mothers and wisdom, a little piglet just bowled me over with her clarity of thought. She figures that one of the major causes of post-partum depression in chinese mothers is the confinement process.

Wah. Ya hor.

What's a girl to do? You've recently had to endure the scrutiny of strangers paying what would ordinarily be WAY too much attention to your bits down there as if it were a plasma-screen tv showing a watermelon being dragged out of a lemon-sized hole. You've discovered that instead of the soulsister who's shared meaningful times with you since your pinafore days, your best friend is in fact, a handy little thing called epidural. You've also discovered that all that weight you packed in during the past 9 months is of absolutely no use in helping you push and doesn't equal the combined weight of the baby, placenta and whatever-else-bits-that-come-out.

To top that off, got to go home and kena CONFINED. With a smug, I've-SO-been-here-I-am-supermom-hear-me-roar mother. Or worse, mother-in-law. No aircon, no real food, no hair-washing, no sex. And despite everybody's claims of ownership through likeness, your baby actually looks like a semi-dried prune or a little old lady.

Then there's breastfeeding. Your baby gives you the finger everytime you present your breast and secretly grows a full set of adult teeth whilst suckling/chewing. Your mother (whether in law or in charge) accuses your boob juice (trademarked expression by Mother of Oooops Baby) of being too diluted lah, too little lah, etc.

And your hair is smelly. EVERY. DAY. Which is an even bigger deal if your spouse is a smell-monster.

Hello depression my old friend.

18 comments:

Karen said...

crap. now I'M starting to fear flying too... one of the few things i don't fear!

and it's not true lah, i used to shower immediately after dinner, just to defy dad. had a flatflat tummy. NOW i shower just before bed but...!! it's the puddings, i tell you.

Karen said...

oops. just realised that whilst dinner may be some time earlier, pudding time IS often just before the shower. oklah, it's true. *grin*

AJ said...

Showering after meals gives you a big belly? Eekk! So when is it best to shower to get a flat tummy? Please ask your mum for me. We could sell this vital information for millions I tell you!

Anonymous said...

whoa you mom is like the Oracle lar! kowtow kowtow

Anonymous said...

Ahhh...I got tat 'big belly after shower' from my mum too. Wait!! Got somemore...cannot breastfeed baby after shower cos got 'wind' in the milk wor... how can??? If got soap in milk, is more like it!!
Tatz why mothers in confinement cannot shower loh....

Goat

Anonymous said...

Whoever invented confinement ought to be SHOT DEAD!! How not to get post natal depression from all those ridiculous rites and rituals that comes from confinement? Plus a MIL who has this notion that formula is the way to go for a healthier and fatter baby.*rolling eyes*

BTW, Snowie (Sorry Spot, tumpang here ah?), showering after dinner will not give you a big tummy. Having defective genes would. Look at our dads! I believe that my-not-so-flat tummy is due to my defective gene pool and of course, from the 2 piglets I bore.


-She with the boob juice

Anonymous said...

I noticed that abt the plane crashes too ... so much so that I got really paranoid when Fische had to go to Penang for a day trip.

On confinement, you're really scaring me. Esp the smelly hair bit.

Spot said...

snowie - as long as you don't blame me for your big belliness...who ask you to copy me. :) luckily Italy is planned for April/May hor?

AJ - aha, i know the answer, no need to ask mummy...to get a flatflat tummy, the time to shower is NEVER!!! That way, you'll be so smelly that no one will want you and you'll be depressed and starve yourself in shame. :D

WS - i always tell her that she shd be a professional kpoh for chinese weddings. dowan wor.

Goat - bwahahaha...soap in milk..heehee. so geli though, if pantang shower. when breastfeeding how? sumbat with dirty boob? ick.

Boobjuicer - welcome! finally kamguan comment ah? but i think you commented on the luggage post. as for your belly, your piglets worth it kan? eh, not piglets lah. one goat one chicken. and you pig. wah, a whole barnyard.

najah - erk. hate the flight to penang.

malay pantang larang same as chinese confinement rituals? don't you all emerge from childbirth as slim as you were before? from the balut balut and jamu stuff.

the thought of smelly hair alone would put me into depression.

Biow said...

the hair part is the worst of the lot!! i actually love confinement food.. but the cannot kena air part really make no sense!!! cis.. i told my mom confinement is 28days! so i hv 18 days more to go!..

Mint Chutney said...

Forget diamonds, an epidural is definitely a girl's best friend.

And I'm sorry, I could almost live with anything else except the no hair washing rule.

Will said...

CHOI! Don't la scare me like that! SOME people have to fly everyday you know! Seventh month over already right?

Oh oh both my sisters hated confinement too. God's not very fair la. He gave men ability to piss upright but women kena give birth pulak.

Is it worth all the multiple orgasms?

Jay said...

Please lah, my sister had so much fun during her confinement. The confinement maid did EVERYTHING for her. Cook lah, clean lah, bathe the baby lah, no need to go to work lah.

Complain what?

Vish said...

choi choi choi... oi i'm flying to Edinburgh next week la... *whimper*

Eh, the best part of confinement (esp close friends' ones la) is the food! They get so sick of ginger chicken, they happily invite you to tuck in whenever you're at their place.

=P

I'm adopting, btw. Hehehe.

Derek said...

Hey Spot,

Yeah, my mom has warned me about showering after meals too.

But I don't usually follow. I mean, after a meal outside, come back all sweaty and smelling of food, how not to shower?

Don't have sisters, so no comment about confinement. In fact, I don't know much about woman's stuff ... no fag hag mar.

And tumpang post a bit yeah, Spot? Will - the 7th month is until September 4th.

Anonymous said...

Spot, I SWEAR I left the comment at the correct spot(hahaha....no pun intended!!). Dunno how it ended up at the wrong post.

I call them my piglets cos am a pig and offsprings of pigs are piglets...Hehehe...FYI, piglet no.2(aka the chick) is resembling a real piglet now...*smiles sooo happily*

Thank goodness my smelly, helmet hair days are over.


-Boobjuicer

Anonymous said...

~~~~~~~~geekchic

Urgh. I'm naming my kids Goldie, Milo, Charcoal and Sunny. GOlden retriever, chocolate labrador, black labrador, yellow labrador. So mai no confinement-loh!

I'm brilliant, am I not? :)

Anonymous said...

Chinese confinement customs or 'pei yue' is a load of bull, especially the no hair-washing, no air-conditioning part. New mothers certainly require lots of care and support, not a bunch of baseless superstitions created before the advent of modern health care. I bet a new mother will feel much better if she gets a professional blowout twice a week and Xanax by the hour, the latter on condition she's not breastfeeding, of course.

Spot said...

biow - confinement food is yummy, for a day or so. i'd go mad if i couldn't bite into a giant chunk of fried greasy meat for more than 2 days.

minty - i wonder if one would forgo an epidural if there was an incentive of a honking fat diamond at the end of the ordeal?? heh.

wingedman - heehee. the worst is over already, apparently. all fed after the 15th. So I'm told *looks suspiciously at snowie* Fly with impunity, princess!

jay - ah, but was she smelly?

lady v - adoption? think angelina jolie. mrowl. good wat.

derek - the time you take to get home after eating out is enough to counter the balloon-belly curse, apparently. pffft.

boobjuicer - wah, your boob juice full of power! piglet 2 is rather chubby. more photos pls, now that you don't have to worry about helmet hair.

geekchic - welcome, you brilliant yet geeky chic! i like the name charcoal.

shryh - hence the hypothesis that confinement contributes majorly to the postpartum depression. should start a new movement!