The Name Game

A very common question asked during one's pregnancy is "Have you thought of any names yet?". It's a harmless question. It's just one of those filler questions that don't bug me all that much. Sometimes however, it gets a little bit more annoying especially when it comes from one's own mother.

My mother knows what names we have in mind. But being my mother, she needs to add her two cents worth. So here's how it went.

Mother: What about Joshua?
Me: No, my best friend's son is Joshua.
Mother: Never mind. It can still be Joshua.
Me: I don't want Joshua. Anyway, Joshua Tan? So common.
Mother: Never mind. It can still be Joshua. Joshua parted the River Jordan.
Packrat (trying to prevent his wife from being rude to her mother): But Moses parted the Red Sea and that's way cooler.
Mother: But Joshua is nice.
Me: Joshua in a mission school? Take stone and throw, 4 out of 5 times, you'll hit a Joshua. No.
Mother: Whhhhhyyyy?
Me (more emphatically): NO.
Mother: What about the Chinese name?
Me: You want Joshua as a Chinese name?
Mother: No, what Chinese name? Tan Chin Ku? (This, in dialect, means, wait very long- literally translated).
Me (suitably antagonised and refusing to see any humour in it) : NO!
Elder Brother: You do realise, Mother, that you're not going to have ANY say in the name?
Mother (Makes funny whiny sounds in reluctant defeat)...

Incidentally, Joshua did not part the River Jordan so my mother can go back to the drawing board. On days like that, I can only hope and pray I don't antagonise my kids like that. I know it's the mother's prerogative, but seriously, why inject more tension than necessary.

But then again, I'm in my last trimester and the happy hormones have officially gone bye bye.

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