Buttons II

A little glimpse into the increasingly confused world of Okaasan.
No wonder she looked tired last night.

Turns out now that she DID go to the sewing shop to buy the thread for my buttons.
But the sales assistant asked if she had a shop points card.
Okaasan said "No", and then didn't have her name seal to fill out the application form (because Yujiro keeps her name seal as a big to stop her signing up for credit cards etc).
So she didn't get the points card.
So she didn't get the thread.
So she didn't sew the buttons.

Of course most people would say/think: "No, I don't have a point card, I don't need one, I'm only buying thread today, it doesn't matter"...and continue on the main task of buying thread.

But Okaasan got so easily knocked off course by the sales assistant question about a points card. Suddenly she is focusing on THAT and then is getting further and further away from the original intention.
Shops/businesses in Japan endlessly give customers these cards, it's a form of advertising and usually there isn't much advantage to having the card unless you buy a lot from that particular shop.
Okaasan isn't able to say "No" to these sales assistants at all, deep in her Super Housewife psyche is the feeling that it MUST be an advantage to having the points card. Of course in reality she doesn't do enough shopping anywhere to justify a points card (apart from maybe the underwear department), but she doesn't have that level of judgement.

The upshot was that Yujiro was telling Okaasan this morning that he wouldn't give her the name seal because you don't need that to get the card anyway, you just put your name and address and sign it. And then she found that she DID have a card for this sewing shop.
And I was wishing I hadn't started the whole confusion by asking her to sew the bloody buttons in the first place........it was MEANT to be a positive experience for her, not stressful!