I used to like to be the mother of all, to take pride of being 'the one you call when you need advices/want to know something'. Being the oldest and only girl of my family, I guess the habit of taking care of others and answering people needs comes from 'back then'.
Now, for some reason, I'm getting a bit annoyed, sometimes. For many of my friends, I became the 'whatever you need to know' hotline. Here is a (non-exhaustive) list of reasons why friends and not-so-friends called/emailed me recently:
- the traditional "what should I tell him?"
- phone number of someone else (many times)
- address of a shop
- directions to a specific address (either 'live' - person is driving - or not)
- soup recipe
- dessert recipe
- pancake recipe
- chicken recipe
- "do you think I can eat pesto after its best before date?"
- "do you think I can eat eggs after their best before date?" (not in the same phone call as previous point)
- traffic report ("I'm on highway 13, can you tell me what is going on ahead, we're not moving?")
- link to a website (that I obviously don't know)
- phone number, courses prices and schedule of the karate school that my kids are not attending (I guess because I talked about it once)
- phone number of the hairdresser
- airport departures schedule
- address of Eid prayer
- schedule of Eid prayer
- if I could make a wake-up call at 5 am every day
- informations regarding child health
- advices regarding child education
- informations regading islam
- volunteering request
- advices on friendship problems
- advices on marital problems
- phone number of a daycare center
- phone number of a psychologist
- recipe to make soap
- reference of someone who could help someone else
- daycare references
And on. And on.
Don't get me wrong. Sometimes I find it funny. Sometimes I take it as an honor. Sometimes I wonder why people think I know answers to almost everything. But yes, sometimes, I find it annoying to be the mother of all.
And sometimes, I would like to be mothered, too.
