Sometimes if I just stop and look at myself, I cannot believe what I am doing. Or wearing. For example, this morning I found myself wearing a towel on my head, and another wrapped around me, vacuuming a kitchen floor covered in spices. I stopped mid-vac and realized how ridiculous I looked. But, as they say...context, context, context. Only minutes before, I was taking my 3 minute morning shower, hoping that while I did so the children wouldn't be tearing the house--or each other--apart (I always imagine someone telling the tale of what my children did to make the news headlines and then shaking their head saying, "the mother was in the shower..."). I stepped out of shower and heard (yes heard) that deafening silence that tells you that the children are up to no good. None at all. So, I threw a towel on and ran down to the source of the silence, which was my children staring at a kitchen floor covered with the spices they had dumped on it. (Of course they chose the colorful ones, like turmeric and paprika, that show up in every seam in the floor). The vacuum was sitting 2 feet away and so I thought, "why not?", which is how I found myself vacuuming the kitchen floor in a towel this morning.
I know I'm not alone here. My sister, for example, found herself standing in her backyard yelling, "put your pants on, Marmalute". Context: the toddler son of a Russian neighbor had disrobed in her back yard.
And a few days ago I answered the door for a friend and his son while wearing this headband and a black sundress:
Context: my 3 year old daughter had been fixing my hair when I was on the computer and, of course, I didn't notice--or sense, I guess--what she did. He didn't notice either.
Bertrand Russell described philosophy, in so many words, as making the familiar unfamiliar. Raising these kids can be so--well, overwhelming is the wrong word, but something along those lines---absorbing? that I don't see the hilarity of it all until I stop and look at things objectively, i.e., make the familiar unfamiliar. Then I think it's worth writing about.
just reading this post makes me take comfort in the fact that i'am not alone. i too obsessively wonder what people might think if, for the few minutes that i leave the children alone to tend to myself, the newborn, etc., they did something horrific! and i know too well that deadly silence which usually alerts me to the fact that i will probably have a big mess on my hands to clean up. but yet, when i hear the stories from other moms, i find them to be hilarious, namely b/c they didn't happen to me! but i have got to learn to lighten up and enjoy the moment because like the elderly like to remind us, "before you know it, they will be all grown up. cherish them now while you still can!"
ReplyDeleteyour kitchen floor must've been sooo pretty. those are such pretty colors.
ReplyDeletedid janelley ever tell you about the time i thought she was "making a statement" towards my by wearing an elmo barret to the playground>!?!?!
or, the other day in target the cashier said " you have some powder on your back" (read:love handle) I went to brush it off, but didn't know how to play down that it was dried on banana and cookie.