有天晚上，娃儿突然神神秘秘地问我：
“妈妈，母亲节是什么时候？”
我说：
“星期天呀。”
结果他立马接一句：
“我有东西要给你。你要今天看，还是星期天看？”
我笑着反问：
“那你希望我今天看，还是星期天看？”
他说：
“今天看吧。”
我一下子就明白了。
他其实已经迫不及待想让我看了。
—
可偏偏那时候，
我正在研究一个新保险箱。
已经弄了两个小时，
还是打不开。
整个人开始有点烦躁。
于是我对他说：
“要不等妈妈弄好之后再看？”
娃儿没说什么。
过了一会儿，
他默默把东西放进抽屉里，
一本正经地告诉我：
“别看，周日才能看！”
我说：
“那我晚上吃过敏药后，一定会打开那个抽屉的！”
娃儿没说什么，就走了。
—
又过了半个小时。
娃儿吃完饭后走进来，
看我居然还在研究那个保险箱。
直接来一句：
“妈妈，我来！”
结果他自己试了几次，
也打不开。
后面突然问我一句：
“你问爸爸帮忙了吗？”
我说：
“没有。”
娃儿立马追问：
“为什么？”
那一瞬间，
我自己也突然愣了一下。
是啊。
为什么呢？
我随口回答了一句：
“我觉得爸爸已经有很大的压力了，就不叫他了。”
可说完之后，
我自己心里却慢慢开始想：
其实娃儿说得也没错。
很多时候，
我好像已经习惯了：
• 自己研究
• 自己解决
• 自己扛着
甚至下意识觉得：
“不要再麻烦别人了。”
—
后来，
等我发现可能是电池的问题后，
娃爹说：
“我出去买电池吧。”
而这一次，
我没有再说：
“不用了。”
那一刻，
我突然想起一句话：
每个人，
其实都有“被需要”的时候。
—
等保险箱终于能打开后，
娃儿立马凑过来问：
“妈妈，密码是什么？”
我犹豫了两秒。心想着，
到底要不要告诉他。小时候父母可不会告诉我们保险箱密码啊。后面想想，其实也没什么。
结果没想到，
他一下子就打开了。
而且趁我一个没注意，
已经偷偷把母亲节礼物放了进去。
放完后，
还特别认真地叮嘱我：
“周日前不要打开，知道吗？”
我答应了。
我还沉浸在为何小时候大人都不给我们保险箱密码的时候，他已经第一个利用上了。
而我后来，
居然也真的一次都没打开过。
就这样默默等着，
等星期天，
等他亲手给我的那个小惊喜。
婷妈的亲子日常 创作于 2026.05.16
原创发布： tingtingma.com
写给孩子，也写给正在成长的大人。
未经授权，请勿转载。
Tingma’s Parenting Diary| 257. He Said, “Don’t Open It Before Sunday”
One evening, my son suddenly asked me mysteriously:
“Mom, when is Mother’s Day?”
I said:
“Sunday.”
And right away he followed up with:
“I have something for you. Do you want to see it today or on Sunday?”
I smiled and asked back:
“What do you want?”
He said:
“Today.”
At that moment, I immediately understood.
He was already too excited to wait for me to see it.
—
But unfortunately, at that exact moment,
I was busy trying to figure out a brand-new safe.
I had already been working on it for two hours,
and still couldn’t get it open.
I was starting to feel irritated.
So I told him:
“How about Mommy looks at it after I figure this out?”
He didn’t say anything.
A little while later,
he quietly put the gift back into a drawer
and told me very seriously:
“Don’t look. You can only look on Sunday!”
I teased him:
“Then after I take my allergy medicine tonight, I’m definitely going to open that drawer!”
He didn’t say anything.
He just walked away.
—
About half an hour later,
after dinner,
he came back into the room
and saw that I was still struggling with the safe.
He immediately said:
“Mom, let me try!”
He tried a few times himself,
but still couldn’t open it either.
Then he suddenly asked:
“Did you ask Dad for help?”
I answered:
“No.”
He immediately followed up with:
“Why?”
At that moment,
I suddenly froze for a second myself.
Yeah.
Why not?
I casually replied:
“I think Dad already has a lot of pressure, so I didn’t want to bother him.”
But after saying it,
I slowly realized to myself:
Actually,
my son wasn’t wrong.
A lot of the time,
I’ve become so used to:
• figuring things out myself
• solving things myself
• carrying things myself
That subconsciously,
I automatically think:
“Don’t trouble other people.”
—
Later,
when I realized the problem might actually be the batteries,
my husband said:
“I’ll go buy some batteries.”
And this time,
I didn’t say:
“It’s okay.”
At that moment,
a thought suddenly came to me:
Everyone,
in some way,
wants to feel needed.
—
Once the safe finally opened,
my son immediately came over and asked:
“Mom, what’s the password?”
I hesitated for two seconds.
I was thinking:
Should I really tell him?
When we were little, parents would never tell us the password to the safe.
But then I thought about it again,
and honestly,
maybe it wasn’t such a big deal after all.
To my surprise,
he opened it immediately.
And while I wasn’t paying attention,
he had already secretly placed his Mother’s Day gift inside.
After putting it away,
he very seriously reminded me:
“Don’t open it before Sunday, okay?”
I agreed.
Meanwhile,
I was still lost in thought about why adults never shared safe passwords with us when we were children,
while he had already become the very first person to use it.
And afterward,
I actually never opened it even once.
I simply waited quietly,
waiting for Sunday,
waiting for the little surprise he wanted to give me himself.
Tingma’s Parenting Diary
Written on May 16, 2026
Originally published at: tingtingma.com
Written for my child, and for the adults who are still growing.
Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited.
Originally written in Chinese by the author.
This English version was translated with the assistance of ChatGPT.