Thursday, March 31, 2011

Embarrasing Moments

This is the first post, in what I hope to be many as part of a blog project I am doing with three other ladies. At the end of my post I will give you the links so that you can check out what they have to say on our topic. Who knows, maybe you will find something else you like.

Ok, on with the show. The topic is to write about your most embarrassing moment. Here is the problem with that, I am always doing something stupid. Or, one of my kids is doing something anti-social... by one I mean generally the oldest one. Because everyday is fraught with embarrasing moments, it becomes the state of normal. When being embarrased is normal, well, it isn't embarassing anymore, right?

While this is declined in recent years, Mac is always having a tantrum about one thing or another. I will say that I have managed to get them to stay in the house more than outside lately, but still, he is prone to lose it in a store. I have strangers approach me and tell me how to manage my kids. I have been doing this for 10 years, I get pretty indignant when they tell me I need to ignore the tantrums and they will go away. My responses vary from "Wow, after spending thousands of dollars with specialists with PhD's no one ever suggested just ignoring it. You are a genius." to "Until you walk a mile in my shoes I would appreciate it if you refrained from judging me." Both extremes are sort of sassy, and I am not embarrased about that, because this is my life, and this is normal, and unless you are going to ACTUALLY help me, then please shut up and move on, there is nothing to see here.

I was talking with a friend about this topic, and she said, well you were sort of embarrased about carring Sam out of the school. It was the second day of school here in sunny, warm (if I believe it it will be true) Chicago, and Sam had it in his head he was going to ride that school bus home. My calm, sweet little boy decided that unless he was riding home on the bus, he wasn't going and the mother of all tantrums ensued. IN. FRONT. OF. THE. CAR. LINE. Yeah, in front of all the teachers, the other parents. It was a proud moment. I ended up having to pick him up and carry him to car. He was yelling, "You are not my Mom and you are hurting me." It was GREAT. There I am surrounded by all these mandated reporters and my kid is accusing me of stealing him and hurting him. At the time I was more pissed off than embarrased. It was a situation most people would be embarrased by, but I am so insulted from that emotion I was more angry.

I am not sure if this is a good thing or not, because embarrasment keeps you from doing something really stupid.  I try very hard not to do stupid things, but embarrasment is really no longer part of my filter.  I spent a good part of Mac's early life being embarrased by his behavior, but I always had to take a deep breathe and deal with what ever was happening.  If I allowed embarrasment to be part of governing my behavior, well, we would never leave the house.

That is all I have to say on the topic, I am getting ready to leave the house.  Pretty sure some thing potentially embarrasing will happen, and guess what, I won't care.

If you want to see what the other ladies have to say about this, then check them out,  Momarock,  Froggie  and  Mel.   See you back here next week for our next topic.  I understand it is going to be legendary.

1 comment:

  1. I have tons of funny and embarrassing stories. All par for the course. I used to worry that people would think we were kidnapping our son when we had to carry him screaming outside of a store. He also managed to make a racist comment on accident and commented very loud about what I was doing in a public bathroom. You can't be a parent if you don't have a sense of humor. :)

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