Travelling with Mom
I recently went on a weekend get-away with my mother and brother to Toronto and Niagara Falls. My mother had never been to either place, and particularly wanted to see Niagara Falls. So, my brother organized a trip for the 3 of us to go.
My brother lives in Calgary and my Mom and I live in Edmonton, so the two of us flew out together and met my brother in Toronto. My Mom doesn’t travel a lot, so hadn’t been on an Air Canada flight since they introduced their personal inflight entertainment system. This is a touch-screen TV located in the seatback. On the flight out, I had to reach over to work her entainment system for her – because she couldn’t figure it out. So, I scrolled through the movies for her to find one for her to watch.
Me: “How about this one, Mom?”
Mom: (Reads the movie description) “No – I don’t want to watch that”
Me: “Okay – what about this one?”
Mom: “I’ve seen that already”
Me: “Really? Are you sure? It’s a pretty new movie”
Mom: “I saw it at your sister’s a couple weeks ago”
Me: “Oh. Okay – what about this one?”
Mom: “No”
(…repeat 10 more times…)
Me (finally): “Have you seen ‘The Help’?”
Mom: “No”
Me: “Okay, that’s it. You’re watching that whether you want to or not”
I also had to pause and re-start the movie for her at various times during the flight – because she pretended that she didn’t know how. However, on the flight home, while waking up from a little nap – I noticed that she was easily controlling the movie all on her own. Sly old fox.
My mom has hearing aids in both ears, so she still doesn’t hear very well – especially in noisy places (and sometimes even in quiet places). So, I ended up being her ‘translator’ for most of the trip. Whenever she couldn’t hear what someone else was saying, she would immediately look to me and I would have to repeat it (in a louder voice) to her. “THE WAITRESS WANTS TO KNOW WHAT YOU WANT TO DRINK”, “THE TOUR GUIDE SAID WE HAVE 45 MINUTES IN NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE”, or “AIRPORT SECURITY WANTS TO GIVE YOU A STRIP SEARCH”. Actually, the last one didn’t happen. Which is good – because my Mom gets very flustered and nervous going through Security, so if that had actually happened – it would’ve pushed her over the edge. Although, looking back, that would’ve been a very amusing thing to do! (amusing for me, that is). I’ll have to keep that in mind for next time.
Trying to take pictures of Mom was quite challenging. I would say “Mom, I want to take a picture”, and she would back out of the way. “No, Mom – I want you in the picture too”. So, she would stand and pose for me. “One, two, thr…” And just as I am taking the picture, she turns her head to look away, or starts walking completely out of the frame. “Mom! You didn’t wait for me to take the picture”. She would respond “Oh, I thought you had already taken it”. Ya, in the 0.5 seconds she stood still for me, I had time to hold the camera up, count to three and take the picture. Maybe I should’ve set my camera on the special ‘pet’ setting that only takes a picture a face is looking directly at the camera.
When I finally did manage to get a decent shot of her – she would look at the picture and go “Is that what I really look like? Gah! I hope you aren’t going to be showing these to anyone!”. Yes, Mom – a photographic image is usually a fair representation of what you look like. And she looked just fine in the pictures – so I’m not sure what she was going on about.
Mom also doesn’t have a particularly good sense of direction. We stayed at the King Edward Hotel in Toronto, and as it is an older hotel that has expanded over the years – to get to our room from the elevator required a few zigs and zags. Everytime we got off the elevator, she would want to head the opposite direction from where our room was. Same thing when we left our room to go to the elevator. My brother and I agreed that Mom wasn’t allowed to leave the room without an escort. Otherwise, she would still be wandering the hallways of the King Eddy like a modern-day ghost.
The three of us shared a room, and I drew the short straw and actually had to share a bed with my mom. The next morning, my mom was excited to tell me that she woke up in the middle of the night, and was so happy to be next to ‘her baby’ (as she put it) that she kissed me on the cheek. I guess that’s kind of sweet. Creepy, but sweet.
But as much as I like to poke fun at my Mom – we all had a great time together. Mom was just happy to be on a little holiday with two of her children. I’m tempted to say that it was with her two favourite children, but I don’t want my sister to punch me. Mom puts up with us teasing her – but that’s because she knows that we only do it because we love her.