Eid ul Fitr is finally here so now the feasting, open house, and family visits begins!
It can be a fun but also quite exhausting time, especially when you have little ones with you for all the Hari Raya visiting.
Here’s a pretty accurate list of the most annoying things parents will encounter during this festive season:
1. Maybe Baby
Whether you have one child, six children, recently gave birth, or are currently pregnant, there will still be that one annoying relative who will ask you when you’re going to have another baby.
Either that or your bloated tummy that’s filled with ketupat (rice cakes), rendang (curry), kueh tarts (pineapple tarts) and orange soda will be mistaken for a baby bump — which will make you instantly regret choosing that tight-fitting kebaya instead of the flowy kaftan.
2. Crystal Palace
We’ve all gone through the stress of visiting a house that’s just filled to the brim with breakable decorative objects like crystal vases, glass tables, ceramic bowls, stone statuettes, delicate porcelain, and fragile figurines.
You spend half the time trying to stop your children from touching anything or accidentally bumping into something that can easily be shattered into a thousand pieces which you will have to hand over all of your Raya packets to help pay for.
3. Football Team
You’re sitting there happily munching on your third kueh makmur and almost choke when suddenly another family unexpectedly pops in for a visit at the same time with ten children in tow, plus their four nephews and their neighbour’s two daughters they’re helping to keep an eye on for the day.
So you discretely try to stuff notes of money into more green packets while using the sofa cushion as a shield and hope you didn’t miss a kiddo out.
4. Huff and Puff
When you visit someone for Hari Raya, they obviously are free to do whatever they want because it is their own house after all, but it kind of irks you when that one particular pakcik (uncle) seems to think it’s fine to smoke like a chimney as he sits across the coffee table from your little ones.
Even though your children start to cough from all the horrible smoke, he just doesn’t get the hint, and you try to figure out which is more rude — asking him to stub out that cigarette or telling your kids to go wait in the car away from harmful second-hand smoke.
5. Night Owls
You have a Raya Open House and invite everyone to come over from 11.00am to 9.00pm, but there are those who have the cheek to drop by at 11.45pm without taking into consideration that it is way past your little one’s bedtime!
Or there’s that one couple who overstay their welcome, so you and your kids struggle to keep your eyes open as they obliviously chatter away until the dead of night.
6. Kosong (Empty/ Zero)
Granted that we shouldn’t be expecting anything when we’re out for Hari Raya visiting, but after travelling on the rather unpredictable MRT all the way from Boon Lay to Bedok, a drink would be greatly appreciated.
You understand that not every house will have a delicious spread of nasi briyani, roti kirai or bee hoon goreng for guests, but it’s a little puzzling when there are absolutely no sweet treats set out on the coffee table at all whatsoever and not even a glass of water offered — so you wonder whether the hosts even want you to be there in the first place…
7. Touchy Feely
Your children are slightly frightened by that over-enthusiastic makcik (aunty) who likes to pinch their cheeks, plant wet kisses on their foreheads, squeeze their arms and ruffle their hair.
It’s especially annoying when this also happens to you as a full-grown adult.
8. Brat Alert
You know your kids are far from perfect, but once you encounter that one annoying brat during a house visit who is screaming at the top of his lungs, scaring the pet cat, and jumping off the furniture like the house is a trampoline park, you will then realise what angels your own children are.
The final straw is when he licks the chocolate off the Raya cookies and puts them back in the jar, bullies your children, and also refuses to salam (politely greet) you – and his parents don’t even seem bothered to correct his behaviour – so you decide to get petty and change the $10 note in the green packet you initially set aside for him with a $2 note instead (sorry not sorry!).
9. Competitors
You get asked about your children’s test scores and also have to endure listening to someone brag nonstop about their little genius who apparently can play the piano while juggling durians with his left foot and doing calculus with the other foot.
These are probably the same people who like to proudly show off their new furniture, thick chains of gold and kueh Raya especially airflown from a master baker in London.
10. Germs Galore
You feel like slathering your children in antibacterial hand gel after Hari Raya visiting because they have just been coughed, sneezed and most likely farted on by some sick relatives who deny that they are even though they are clearly coughing their lungs out.
Some other parents also do very little to keep their snot-nosed children away from yours.
Those without kids sometimes don’t really understand that you have germaphobe tendencies because you just don’t want your little ones to catch a bug and get sick.
Do you agree with our list? What other annoying things do you encounter when out Hari Raya visiting? Tell us by leaving a comment below!