Another weekend. As I team up with my younger teen to visit the neighbourhood super market to grab some groceries, we end up having a conversation about delayed periods. And like some medical expert, she offers me a couple of reasons – stress and pregnancy.

I feel proud how she is trying to decode this monthly mystery. Reminds me of a time when she was 5 and loved playing Sherlock. Can’t say nothing has changed. She is now trying to solve a real mystery. So I throw another argument.

“What if a woman has had a surgical procedure to avoid getting pregnant?”

“Oh, tubal ligation, you mean?”, pat comes the reply.

My jaw drops. I have never once come across this term before. I think I word ligation sounds more like litigation. I smile. And in order to feel one up, I blurt, “Yup, the procedure where they tie up the fallopian tubes”.

I give her one of my proud smirks. I know a thing or two. Going by experience, I should have known my happiness is always really shortlived. There she does again, “That is so dull and primary. The term you use is oviduct”

One look at my dropped face and she is left in stitches. I on the other hand am left with a permanently dropped jaw. It may need stitches.

P.S. There are times in life when you realise, you children are growing up faster than you thought. Some conversations even present a chance discovery into their areas of interest. And that’s exactly how being the idiot seepms perfecty apt. Absolutely the best thing that can happen on a Saturday morning.