This week we were in the car between errands, when Adam and I engaged in the following conversation:
Adam: Mom, you know how I read your blog every now and then?
Me: Yes.
Adam: You’re a really funny blogger.
Me: Thanks, Adam! [My chest began to inflate a little.]
Adam: [Thoughtful pause.] Well…what I was wondering is, why aren’t you like that all the time?
Me: Pardon?
Adam: I mean, you’re really happy and stuff, but why aren’t you funny all the time with us? You’re just kind of a regular mom with us.
Excuse me just a minute while I PULL THAT GIANT DAGGER OUT OF MY CHEST.
I thought about explaining to him about how, as a blogger, I have the benefit of hours–sometimes days–to process the life events I write about until they’re actually, you know, funny.
But then I thought that maybe, just maybe, there is wisdom in the words of a ten-year-old boy, and that maybe, just maybe, this "regular mom" needs to lighten up a bit.
Ouch.
Aren’t our children just brutally honest!? Mine too…but I love it and wouldn’t change that part of them for anything. Dropped by to visit, and love your blog! I will be back again
Out of their mouths and into our hearts. God chooses the most unusual messengers at times to convict and re-shape our hearts and our minds.
Ooh that hits home for me too. I think I am too busy being a “mom” sometimes that I forget to just be crazy and fun. Words of wisdom from a 10 year old.
You have a very insightful boy there. Are you sure he’s only 10? 😉
Reminds me of something my almost 13-yo said to my husband recently. “Dad, why don’t you ever laugh at our jokes?” Sometimes it gets hard to remember that our children need us to be fun and funny with them.
Ouch. yea… this hits me too.
PS – found you through Notes in the Trenches… love your blog, it’s in my reader now. *S*
Uh oh, I have the opposite problem. Apparently my 11 year old’s friends come over every afternoon to laugh at (or WITH?) me.
The Tiny Kingdom: 100% true.
LOL That is too funny!
You can depend on the kids to tell you how it really is. 🙂
Ouch! Made me consider what kind of kid my parents think I am. Am I funny, mean, serious, etc. Hmmm, wonder how I can find out. . . .
Here’s my take. I think bloggers as a whole (or writers at heart, which I am) create best in written form. I think humor is a creative ability, and it comes out most when we writers write. I know there are some exceptions of people who can constantly throw out humor verbally and can write it too, but most of us are not wired that way. Plus, there is just the mom factor. We’re so busy working that we forget to look for humor in the everyday. It has to be thrown at us in order for us to notice it. I don’t think that’s a weakness; it’s just how life is. When I’m with my friends at a restaurant, I can get the group to laugh several times. But at home, when I crack a spontaneous joke, my kids say, “Mom, you just made a joke. Hey, everybody, Mom just made a joke!”…without actually laughing at my joke. Cut yourself some slack. (Do I get extra brownie points for using a semicolon?)
Ooh. The words of an honest child are like a knee to the gut. I’m sure that’s in Proverbs somewhere.
My grown-up friends and neighbors probably wonder the same thing about me. I’m a snoozefest in real life because I’m Southern and I thiiink… reeeeeal… sloooow… and therefore cannot be funny in person unless one is veeeery veeeery paaaatient. So I don’t talk much when we’re all together. I sit quietly and listen then go home and blog about it, and they read it later and laugh. This post made me feel better about the sad condition of my so-called sense of humor. Maybe I’m not the only one out there suffering from DWS: Delayed Wit Syndrome. Hugs –
Oh, my. 🙂 Thanks so much for that reminder today, and gotta love the brutal honesty of kids. I’m off to go try to be funny with my kids today…
Sometimes the lessons we learn from our kids are the most humbling! 😉
It says a lot that he reads your blog! What a sweet boy!
Ouch, yes, this mama is lightening up today too.
Out of the mouths of babes 🙂 I too get so caught up being mummy that I forget to lighten up…Just need a little reminder once in a while 🙂
Ah – life’s like that – it has a way of getting serious on you.
I’m back – and have missed you my regular friend. 🙂
Hahahahaha. And I’m also rolling about Delayed Wit Syndrome.
*giggles* I guess you can’t win them all over!
Well, you can’t always be the “fun mom” can you? Just on your blog. ;o)
I don’t know if you remember, but I won a baby name book giveaway on your site awhile back. I thought I’d let you know that I’m finally getting to use it and have started a blog.
I know what you mean, although mine don’t read my blog. The processing takes a long time for me too, but I think by projecting that side of our personalities, it also makes it easier to practice in real life, or at least I hope so.
Best wishes
And this is why my kids don’t read my blog… or yours. The pressure to be this way all the time would really get to me.
But he’s onto something there. Yes sir, he sure is.
The truth here is that our blogs don’t always (and really can’t) reflect 100% our “real lives” as I feel we probably try to put our “best foot forward” when it comes to our blogs. I mean, a person may talk about the bad parts of their lives on their blog or touch on it, but usually a person such as yourself does not air your “dirty laundry” – not that you would HAVE any dirty laundry Shannon – ha ha. But you know what I mean? So, our blogs tend to be skewed towards the positive, I think whereas real life can’t be! Does that make any sense. I’m having brain farts today and I can’t put on paper what I’m thinking. Oh, who am I kidding, I can NEVER do that.
Oy-vey. The sometimes brutal honesty of our children is like fiery darts to the heart… 🙂
You’ve got to love the honesty of kids!
Well, *I* always laugh when I’m with you.
wow – I’m not even funny on my blog – what does that say about me?
😉
isn’t it funny how kids see us in different lights.
My boys sometime came up with so and so gets to________. My answer was general “thats nice but I’m not so and so”
maybe it’s time Adam found out that even stand-up comedians write their material ahead of time.
From the mouths of babes! I always feel like when God really wants my attention, he uses my kids to send the message. Love your blog. Blessings…
sounds like you have a great kid – who is proud of his mom… let’s face it – if we are fun all the time – we are no longer moms!
Could be worse.
You could be, ahem, “irregular.”
I can’t help but think of the Seinfeld quote, “Not that there’s anything wrong with that.” I agree with Dana that sometimes real life is just boring and not so fun. That’s an important life lesson in this media-saturated culture we live in. But taking the time to turn boring and not so fun events into witty and thoughtful commentary–now that’s special and important too.
I sometimes wonder who the real me is, the blogger or what my kids see.
My 4 year old told me the other day that I’m mean. Yeah. That stung a little…
Lol @ “regular” mom. Like it’s some kind of dirty word!
Oh.
Do I *hear* you, Shannon.
And I concur: it’s the distance between real-time and screen that allows our lives to mellow, sweeten. Writing is this way of thinking, processing. Like living our lives in parallel…or through a telescope…more clearly.
Keep writing it, Shannon. It changes us.
I so appreciate you.
All’s grace,
Ann
I am sure that my boys think the same thing about me. I am so serious with them because we are constantly guiding, training, disciplining and nurturing of course, but sometimes we forget to laugh and have fun.
That is hilarious! I wonder what my boys will think of me as they get older… will I be funny to them? Hmm… I loved this post, it really cracked me up! And just for that, I’m going to make sure I let loose just a little bit extra tomorrow with these 3 little men! GREAT POST!!!!
– Audrey
Pinks & Blues Girls
OUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ouch! yep…maybe, just maybe…
Wise words from Adam –
Out of the mouths of babes…they definitely share those things that we need to hear and in a way that we can comprehend and gets right to our hearts. 🙂
out of the mouth of babes — comes the painful truth sometimes!! my kids do this to me too and it makes me really think…..
Yes, ouch is right!
Oooof! That knee just took all my breath away….but then again, what you do for your kids is sooooo much more important than whether they think we are funny or not. It’s hard to be funny when you are trying to bring ’em up right. Then again, maybe you should just tell him to go to his room and he can come out when he has a sense of humor about his mother.
Ouch! I think that hits home for a lot of us. Daddy is usually the “fun” one in our house because I am the one here all the time doing the everyday things and keeping them clean, safe, fed, and in order. I forget to let go and have fun!
Oh they can be so…HONEST! Can’t they? Ouch..
That reminds me of a comment I just rec’d from my 6 yr. old moments ago, when I stated that I would start dieting about 2 months ago, he looked me up and down and asked “Did you start yet Mommy?” Today he says, “No offense Mommy, really, but you really don’t look like you lost any weight, but no offense though”
No offense taken Brandon, now.. “GO TO BED!!!!”
I received some great advice a week before I got married. The woman that gave me the advice is probably the most amazing wife I have ever met. She is also a terrific mother.
She told me to remember that most difficult, embarrassing, painful situations are ones that we look at years later and laugh about. Linda asked me “why not laugh about it now?”. She advised me to loosen up and not take myself so seriously. And life will go a little smoother.
So far, she’s been right.