WWYD – hair covering

I just got back from Walmart, the place that sucks money out of one’s wallet. I love seeing all the different people in the store – they run the gamut from Chassidic overdressed to tattooed and pierced and lots of naked flesh.

There was a pretty young mommy there, dressed much like me – denim skirt, tee shirt, flip flops, scarf on her head. She had her headscarf tied in a bun at the back – I tie it that way myself sometimes. But wearing it like that, the weight of the scarf pulls it down, so unless you secure the sides with bobby pins, you run the risk of it falling off or you spend much of the day pulling it forward while pushing back your hair – the “pull and push” maneuver –  a move that most of us haircoverers are used to doing.

We entered the store at the same time. By the time we got to the cash register at the same time, I noticed her scarf had slipped way way way back on her head, almost to the point of no return. I know I would want someone to tell me that my scarf was about to fall off, but I didn’t know how open this woman would be to a stranger mixing in to her business. Maybe she wouldn’t care that her scarf was almost off her head. I couldn’t leave it alone though. I kept thinking if I were her I would want some well meaning person to let me know.

I managed to catch her eye and made a motion with my hand and my scarf and pointed to her head. Her hand went up, searched for her scarf and yanked it all the way forward. She flashed me a smile, blushed to her roots, and turned back to the cashier.

Would you have left it alone, or would you have done the same as me?

Privacy

How much privacy do you have in your own house? Do you have a room to call your own, or do you share pretty much every square inch of your home? Do you think as a parent you have a right to personal space (even if it is just an easy chair that is only yours) or that as a parent you need to understand that privacy is something that you will reclaim once the kids have flown the coop?

If you do have a room or place of your own, what kind of room / place is it? Are you most at home holed up in your basement workshop fixing things, or in your home office working on the next American bestseller? How do you as a parent keep this space free of kids (if that’s truly what you want)? Do your kids know that if you are in your kid-free zone they are not to disturb? How often do you go there? Is it to escape the bedlam and noise or is it a personal need having nothing to do with the kids and their noise and mess?

Deep thoughts for a Sunday morning….