Skip to main content

Hindsight is . . .

As I was vacuuming this morning, my mind began to wander to times past - some considered less than funny at the time. Not true this morning as I laughed out loud. And I thought, "hindsight might be twenty-twenty, but it can also be funny-funny".

I know I'm not alone in this thought - we often hear at those less than funny moments that one day we will laugh at 'this' (whatever the 'this' is). Especially when we're parenting young children and they do something incredibly irritating to their parent. In public. In the afternoon. On a hot, humid day spent at the beach. When the child and parent haven't had a nap. And the child can't stop saying something totally inappropriate for a three-year old that he just heard his parent say in frustration at the d*** driver that just cut her off on her way to the grocery store to get the milk her d*** hubby forgot to get the night before. So this adorable preschooler, sitting in the grocery cart starts to say d*** loudly and frequently because he got a big reaction initially from his mom. The store is full of seniors for senior day. Many smile at this cute little darling and then frown when he smiles back and says the new word that he discovered just minutes ago and likes to say because he gets lots of reactions. The parent initially gently corrects the errant preschooler and by the time they finally get to the milk (why does the d*** store put it all the way at the back?) her corrections are gradually more and more stern. By the time they get to the d*** checkout, the parent is beyond frazzled and the child smiles sweetly now chanting his new word. A woman standing in line, likely one of the seniors there that day to save big money, smiles at the child even though he continues to chant d*** and then puts her hand on the parent's shoulder and says in a soft, kind, been-there-done-this voice, "Some day you will look back on this and smile".

And this morning vacuuming, I did. I didn't just smile - I laughed at loud with only the dog to look on in confusion. Funny, funny stuff - great fodder for a "Modern Family" episode if they could ever get the child that plays Lily to talk!

As a parent, we have had lots of fodder for funny, funny hindsight. Every time I get together with my BFF's and we get on the topic of our children, there are funny stories. Perhaps, it's not so funny at the time it is happening- but once it's shared with the BFF's or pondered years later while vacuuming, it is funny. It's more than funny - it's funny, funny. Those moments of hindsight, away from the madness of the moment, can be funny, funny.

As I sit here, parenting three teens (and one is nearly 20) I have plenty of time to look back on those moments. And the three-not-so-little Piggins were generous in their gifts of those moments! I resolve at this moment to spend vast amounts of my alone time to recall these gems. Who knows, I might even, much to their chagrin, blog about them!!

Comments

It's not a popularity contest, but ...

The meaning of success and how

I sat down to write today about being cast/boot free. It is a joy to be back to my 'normal' state of mobility - which is to say that I stumble and totter like a drunken sailor but at least now I'm not wearing a big black boot. Ahoy matey! But instead, I came across the above quote and being easily distracted, I began to think about it instead. (Heck, I'm tired of the damn cast and don't want to waste anymore time thinking or writing about it anyway.) It's a quote my Aunt Bonnie first introduced me too when I graduated from high school and it's come on my radar many times since then, but today for some reason it has given me pause. I laugh often, to be sure. I'm like the uncle in Mary Poppins - I love to laugh. I surround myself with people that make me smile and laugh and am grateful for a husband that still knows how to make me laugh. I'm not to sure about winning the respect of intelligent people, though. I tend to think out of the box and...

The summer that wasn't

It's July 30. Summer, right? Wrong!!! In Michigan, we had our summer two weeks ago for about 10 days. Saw a recent post on Facebook that read:"You know you're in Michigan when you wear your bathing suit on Monday and your parka on Tuesday." We sweltered for a week or two and then were chilled again. That's where we are now. Chilling at 70. Weather aside, it no longer feels much like summer. The back-to-school ads, commercials, displays and talk have begun full-force. And I feel like I just got used to having the three-not-so-little Piggins home again and now I have to get them ready for school. Delaney has a little longer, but Michael leaves for Wayne State law in two weeks and Matthew for his sophomore year at DePauw in three.  I get the nest re-feathered and damn these 'baby' birds but they stay for too short a time then fly away. *sigh* Since this is the "glass half full" blog of a pseudo-Pollyanna, I will revert to thinking positively ...

Sick in St. Louis and Earthquakes in Michigan. What?

A 4.2 magnitude earthquake rattled our home a few weeks ago. Now if we lived in California (or even Oklahoma!) that would be almost commonplace but we live in Michigan where an earthquake is earth shattering, not because of the resulting damage (aside from a few funny Facebook pictures of toppled lawn furniture, I didn't witness any damage) but because earthquakes in Michigan almost never happen. Or at least ones that are felt by the average person. Or even me!  That earthquake was just the beginning of strange events, for this not-so-average person.  The day after Michigan shook, John and I went to St. Louis to see Delaney's end of freshman year performance.  One of the last times John had been to St. Louis together, was in August when he'd had his heart attack. We had dropped our daughter and a van full of belongings in sweltering heat and humidity. It was the first day of a planned two-day orientation and and the following day was the official good bye. John hadn...