Skip to main content

Kimmy

 It's been two weeks of nonstop turmoil and major decisions on a national scale and within our own home. I'm still mentally adjusting to the new no-contact policy we'll have towards birth family. So much to say--none of which  have the energy to recapture here. 

Instead, I have a completely rude observation to make that will only be detrimental to my future parenting and which I should excise from my thoughts immediately. 

You know that annoying sitcom TV character sidekick whose only function is to cheer on the lead character? You know how in tween shows (Full House, Saved By the Bell--from back in my era) that person was completely annoying? They wore a vapid look and made overly-enthusiastic comments once per minute in a squeaky voice? Think Kimmy or Screech. 

That's Jane. 

Imagine you're putting out a snack which you do every single day and it's the same old snack they've had, literally, hundreds of times before, e.g. grapes, apple slices, pretzels. Imagine the whole house is quiet and kind of sleepy because it's winter and everyone is sort of in hibernation mode. Now imagine this babytalking, squeaky voiced, weirdly enthusiastic girl with a big vapid grin says, "Oh boy, gwapes!" as you set the plates down. 

Imagine she has done that exact same thing for every single snack for two years. No variation. No human response. Always the big vapid grin and the squeaky baby-talking exclamation.  

You'd kind of want to slap her, wouldn't you? I don't. Instead I grit my teeth and walk in the other room and brainstorm ways to tell someone to be less excited, less interested, less talkative, just....please be grumpy! Please be rude! Please be angry! Please be tired! Please have a tummy ache! Please just be absolutely anything other than the vapid robot you always are. 

If you think I'm being extreme just imagine living with Kimmy, perpetually being the most Kimmy-ish, all the time. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

I Lied.

For the very first time I lied to a birth family member. I've been brutally honest even when it caused an uproar. I've been honest because I was personally committed to always telling the truth. Until now. Because this lie may actually be the best way to preserve Jane's relationship with her birth family. At our last video call with Grandma Jane seemed uninterested, unengaged, not showing any real emotion. I struggled to find things to prompt her to talk about. Over the next two weeks I waited and she never asked for another call. In the third week I casually brought up the topic and she did not really respond, certainly didn't ask for another call. Finally, yesterday I point blank asked if she wanted to do a video call and she said the word yes but her whole body language said no. It was clear that she was saying yes because she thought she was supposed to, not because she wanted to. So, I took her body language rather than her words and made the decision that we...

So What About Mother's Day?

I was looking ahead on the calendar to our next visit and suddenly realized it fell during Mother's Day weekend. A flood of mixed emotions hit me immediately. Mother's Day is not a deeply important holiday to me. It's nice and all but I've never had super big emotions about it.  The girls can't know what it is yet and won't have any big feelings this year. But...years from now...will this be a uniquely difficult holiday?  So if no one cares right now can I just kinda slide this one under the rug and avoid all the drama? Please, please, please someone confirm this is a real option!?! Ugh, but what about the birth family. Is this a big deal for them? Are there major traditions? Will this be a minefield of potential hurt feelings? Is there a tactful way to call them up and say, so, on a scale of 1 to 10 how invested are you into making this a big rigamarole? While thinking this through I did some googling and found that the local zoo does a special Mother...

Why This but Not That?

I've been thinking about how I react to everything the three toddlers do. After years as a special ed teacher and 16 years of parenting I feel like I'm pretty relaxed most of the time. I would generally describe my parenting style as: pick your battles and, really, are there that many battles worth fighting? But lately it seems like I'm having big reactions to some things that the three littles do. For example: they were all three playing in the front yard and Kate opened the gate and got out into the driveway, even though I'd made a big deal about only mama opening that gate. Walking outside and finding her outside the fence (the gate had swung shut behind her) was about the angriest I have been since the girls came. I went absolutely ballistic...to the extent that I won't even describe here what I did to teach her this was extremely dangerous behavior. We live in the country but our house is near a road that people go flying down because it's so quiet. No...