Ya know, I knew this was gonna be one of those days. How? Well, it’s not just an eyebrow raising title… I actually broke my toothbrush this morning. I had to use just the brush head to brush as best I could. Needless to say, for as much of a big-mouth as I am, it didn’t work well and wasn’t a very satisfying brushing. I spent the rest of the day longing for a solid-handled toothbrush and a thorough scrubbing. It was the first in a list of ironically funny things today that when I say them out loud, they sound like I’m talking in code. Things like “I dropped my smoothie on the mouse” (computer mouse, not the squeak squeak kind) and “Surely I’m not the only one who falls up stairs” and any action preceding the words “Yeah, I totally meant to do that.” The list goes on.
My husband and I have a list of things we never though we’d hear come out of our mouths. The list grew into a book once we had kids. Shocking, right? Kids have a way of doing things that seemed like a good idea at the time and ended up not being thought through all the way. As long as no one gets hurt and the house is still standing, many of these things are quite funny in hindsight. Sometimes VERY long hindsight.
Page 62 reads: “Goldfish don’t eat carrots.”
Page 433 cites the ancient words of wisdom: “We don’t paint the rabbit with orange juice!”
There’s a very well-known saying on page 798: “Get Barbie out of the toilet!” Man, if I had a nickel every time I’ve said that one… Rich woman, I’m tellin’ ya.
And then on what must be page 141,656, the gem from tonight’s dinner conversation: “No, honey, you can’t get a tattoo.” This was said to my five year old daughter.
Then of course, there’s the parenting-induced Tourette’s.* I can be carrying on a normal -STOP!-conversation and have to distract a child from doing something along – DON’T DO THAT- the lines of sticking a nail file in an electrical socket. These outbursts are sudden and shocking to witnesses, especially because I go right -I SAID NO!- back to the tone and topic of the conversation as if the outburst never happened.
* Please note here that I do not say this to make fun of those who really do have Tourette’s or otherwise exhibit tics. It’s simply an analogy that happens to closely fit what happens to parents, especially once their children become mobile.
It is well-known that laughing is a common stress buster. In fact, when people get hurt, often they dissolve into hysterical laughter rather than inconsolable tears. Why? At the risk of getting a little technical, laughing releases endorphins, which actually fight pain receptors in the brain. This is beside the fact that, as parents, sometimes we just have to pick between the two.
As I said, as long as no one is hurt and the house is still standing, there is so much humor in every day. Each one of us has to be willing to laugh and experience the joy that comes with kids, pets, life, and most of all, ourselves. An integral part of life is finding that humor and then having a good long belly laugh, preferably right alongside the people you love.