Around here: (Hint: If you get confused, just remove the words in my post that are in all caps and you'll know the truth!)
Today when I was in a meeting for all the children's Bible study teachers at my church, they began pulling names out of a bowl to give away 3 door prizes. The prizes? A beta fish.
A real, living fish swimming in a little fish bowl.
I whispered to my friend sitting next to me, "If I'd known that was the prize I would have never put my name in the bowl!"
She giggled.
And 0.5 seconds later.
They did NOT read my name!
The head of the preschool dept. at our church did NOT skip over to my table, present me with the fish bowl complete with a real, living fish, hand me a baggie of pellets, say, "Feed it 1 or 2 each day", and then flitter off before I could protest!
I did NOT spend the entire rest of the meeting completely tuning out the speakers as I tried to figure out how to get rid of the thing!
I really never thought I'd be THAT mom.
You know the one that says, "Yeah, you can have that for a pet when you're old enough to take care of it all by yourself!"
But 1 dog and 3 kids later, I AM THAT MOM!
There was a moment as the blue fish stared back at me that I began to wonder if maybe God wanted me to have it, after all my name was chosen. And I imagined the excitement my children would have over the fish.
But then I imagined my toddler dropping the bowl, or reaching in and getting the fish out someday when I wasn't looking. I also remembered the often short lifespan of fish and actually had the thought, "It is a busy week coming up, I really don't want to deal with a dead fish, sad children, and a fish burial. Really not on the agenda this week."
And then the clincher, I noticed a gray haze of fish poop that had already accumulated at the bottom of the small bowl and remembered back to many o' fish bowls I cleaned out for my goldfish as a child and the stench of that fish bowl water!
And as soon as the meeting wrapped up, I was NOT the one in the back yelling, "Anybody want a beta fish!"
In the end, I did NOT give it to a lady who said her neighbor would love the fish!
And until they start reading my blog, my kids will never know what they missed!
Girl, I'm so w/ you on giving away any fish that comes my way. Seriously, you might as well call it Hospice for fish at my house. Anyway, I enjoyed reading what you did NOT do!
ReplyDeleteI would NOT have done that either. Nope. Not me.
ReplyDeletehahaha...I totally get it...And yet, almost a year ago I let my grandson talk me into getting a Beta fish ~ complete with a cute bowl and BRIGHT orange rocks...He named him Bubbles. Do you know Bubbles is STILL alive? haha...Who would have thought it...Now everytime I look at Bubbles I remember that sweet day with my grandson. I had heard Beta's (unlike gold fish) are REALLY hard to kill. It has been soo true for me. Don't think I ever had a gold fish that lived over a week. Have a great day...HUGS
ReplyDeleteI can totally understand why you didn't want to keep the fish! I have four children and I know either my husband or I would end up cleaning up after it and taking care of it. Although, if I would have won that fish....he would have PROBABLY come home with us anyway!
ReplyDeleteLol...I am sooo that mom too! Kim
ReplyDeleteI got a fish once that was the center piece at the table where I was sitting at a wedding...I was the bigger brat and got the fish, then after I got it...I looked at my then boyfriend now husband and said, what the heck am I going to do with this fish?! LOL! Too funny.
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