That, I understand!

So, their are times when I am up late enough to watch the old episodes of Seinfeld. I just love Seinfeld and the raw truth that is "uncovered" during each show. The presentation of each life lesson is so hysterical that their are times when I have to pause the t.v. and catch my breath! Seriously, I don't know if I think it's funny because I have lived out some of the drama presented or if it's just that I am up late and slap happy! Either way, I just can't make it through a show without wiping tears of laughter off my face! More often than not, I am laughing alone in bed with a very annoyed sleeping husband. To me, it's worth every frustrated grunt that comes from his side of the bed!

I watched a hilarious episode a few nights ago that I don't ever remember watching before. Every now and then I come across a "forgotten or missed" episode and I have a whole new remorse for Seinfeld not running anymore. So, This particular show Elaine was dating a new guy. She went and borrowed his car and was horrified at the realization that all of his radio stations were pre-programmed to christian radio. Her facial expression was priceless and inevitably she ends up sitting down with Jerry and George to discuss this new found dilemma in her life. Jerry comes up with "well, it's probably just a new car and he hasn't gotten around to reprogramming the stations" Elaine says, elated "Right! because he's lazy!!" George gives his two cents worth of "Or...he might not know how to program them" Again, Elaine is thrilled at the fact that this could be true and says "Yes! because he's dumb!" Jerry then proceeds to say to Elaine " You'd rather be dating someone who is lazy and stupid than someone who is religious?" Of course Elaine gives her best "DUH" expression and says "Well, yes, I understand lazy and stupid! I don't get religion". That's when the audience roars with laughter and that's where my wheels started turning......

It was a good point don't you think? Since everything I do revolves around parenting that's where my mind went first. With parenting, there are times when I understand what my kids do....I just don't get it! The funny thing is, that I think my kids are confused at how I can go from an intelligent human being and then all of a sudden my brain freezes and they are left with a mom that has no common sense at all. Really, I will ask questions like "what are you doing?" as they are drawing pictures on the mirror because it's fogged up. They look at me a little puzzled and proceed to answer me by saying "drawing on the mirror because it's all fogged up" or how about when I ask "Did you just draw on that?" pointing to the leather van seat with their name in their hand writing written on it. They almost pause a little as if they think "hmmmm....she's asking........ this must mean that she doesn't know it was me". No.....you see the point is, I understand what they have done, I just don't get it!

Same is true with my kids. When the roles are reversed their are things that my kids understand about me, but they just really don't get! This was very clear when Josh received a "mom quiz" on facebook a while back. The quiz was set up to see how much you really knew about your mom. (I guess facebook now creates surveys for our parents so that when we fail miserably and forget to call our moms on their birthdays they have one more thing to throw at us ".....and....you don't even appreciate me, you failed the 'how much do you know your mother' quiz on facebook!"....that's my theory at least). Of course we had some fun with it and asked Kaidon some of the questions just to see how he'd answer. It went something like this:

Josh: what does your mom do most?

Kaidon: clean!

Josh: What does your mom do in her free time?

Kaidon: clean!

Josh: What does your mom do for a living?

Kaidon: clean!

Josh: What is the first thing your mom does when she gets up in the morning?

Kaidon: clean!

Josh: When your mom gets angry, what does she do?

Kaidon: clean!

Josh: What makes your mom frustrated?

Kaidon: When things aren't clean!

Josh: What does your mom LIKE doing?

Kaidon: cleaning!

UH, what? can you repeat that? You see, he clearly understands what I do, he just does not get it! No, he doesn't get that I'd like nothing more than to curl up with a good book in a quiet house that I didn't have to clean. Although....come to think of it, he would understand I was reading but he might just not get why I am reading without being told by my teacher to do so.....what a vicious cycle!