"I had a really bad day at school"

Mac is usually so happy and cheerful, but yesterday he got off the bus with his head hanging down. He told me he had a really bad day at school. I asked what happened and he said he did something very embarrassing. I asked him what he did, thinking of all the really embarrassing things he could have done that might have scarred him for life. In gym class, he fell down on his head and "everybody laughed, even the teacher, Mom". I asked him if he would have laughed had it happened to someone else and he said no (of course not, says his mother sarcastically).

So I decided to tell him my most embarrassing school story of all time. It occurred in the 5th grade at a school that I'd only attended for a few months. It must have been Halloween (what other occasion would there have been to dress up in a costume?) and I dressed up as a hobo and wore a pair of my dad's pants as part of the costume. I rode the bus to school and when we arrived, I stood up to get off but the pants stayed down. Fortunately it was cold and I had on tights underneath and I don't know if anybody really even saw because believe you me, I was fast in pulling them up, but I WAS MORTIFIED. (Obviously I'm scarred still because I can remember the horror some 28 years later.)

So I thought this story definitely trumped the falling on his head thing. But Mac looked at me with near-disgust in his eyes and said "that's nothing compared to my embarrassment." There you go. I am now letting go of my decades-old embarrassment because it can't even compare with kindergarten embarrassment.