The F word

Now this one is definitely a ‘blast’ from the past. Not too long ago, just 6 months ago my family and I were returning to Melbourne from an awesome holiday in Gold Coast. We stayed there with our amazing friends for a good four days, and today was the day to return back home.
We caught a train from their home to Brisbane airport. It was a working day, the train was packed with bored adults, in their formal attire, looking into their phones the whole time. The train was filled with pin-drop silence.

My daughter sat next to me, all excited to get a train ride before a boring airplane journey. She sensed the mood on the train and chose to be quiet too. It wasn’t her usual personality but, I was quite pleased to see this side of her. For a 3yo to know how to read the room, I was bloody impressed.

It was a long ride…

After about 15 minutes she started whispering about things she saw outside from the train’s window. There were two women sitting right in front of us, facing us, who were actually looking into their phones, but I could see that they had their ears glued to what my daughter was rambling about. Occasionally they smiled, and why not? Anya, my daughter, is a cute kid and I am her proud mum ❤️

And then, Anya opened her mouth. And this time, in high decibel, she said, “Mama, I think I farted”. Before I could react or perhaps faint out of embarrassment, she continued, “Mama, I did it again, a big, smelly one…”.

This once cute kid had now become a talking farting machine.

How much I wanted to pretend that was not my child! She kept talking about her fart and everyone, no exaggeration, everyone with functional ears on that train started laughing. While I begged her to STOP TALKING, those once poker faced people couldn’t stop laughing.

As we finally arrived at our destination, the train erupted into applause and laughter once again, bidding farewell to the little comedian who had made everyone’s day. It was a journey we would never forget—a journey filled with unexpected laughter, the smelly innocence of childhood, and, of course, a symphony of farts that echoed through the train car.