The Wake-Up Call! | Mike Jaffe’s Blog

A Mom’s Worry

This is one I just received from…my mom (who else?)

Thanks Mom. I love you. Now, where were you last night? I was worried!

A MOM WORRIES

Is there a magic cutoff period when offspring become accountable for their own actions? Is there a wonderful moment when parents can become detached spectators in the lives of their children and shrug, “It’s their life,” and feel nothing?

When I was in my twenties, I stood in a hospital corridor waiting for doctors to put a few stitches in my son’s head. I asked, “When do you stop worrying?” The nurse said, “When they get out of the accident stage.” My mother just smiled faintly and said nothing.

When I was in my thirties, I sat on a little chair in a classroom and heard how one of my children talked incessantly, disrupted the class, and was headed for a career making license plates. As if to read my mind, a teacher said, “Don’t worry, they all go through this stage and then you can sit back, relax and enjoy them.” My mother just smiled faintly and said nothing.

When I was in my forties, I spent a lifetime waiting for the phone to ring, the cars to come home, the front door to open. A friend said, “They’re trying to find themselves. Don’t worry, in a few years, you can stop worrying. They’ll be adults.” My mother just smiled faintly and said nothing.

By the time I was 50, I was sick & tired of being vulnerable. I was still worrying over my children, but there was a new wrinkle. There was nothing I could do about it. My mother just smiled faintly and said nothing.

I continued to anguish over their disappointments, be tormented by their frustrations and absorbed in their problems. My friends said that when my kids got
married I could stop worrying and lead my own life. I wanted to believe that, but I was haunted by my mother’s warm smile and her occasional, “You look pale. Are you all right? Call me the minute you get home. Are you depressed about something?”

Can it be that parents are sentenced to a lifetime of worry? Is concern for one another handed down like a torch to blaze the trail of human frailties and the fears of the unknown? Is concern a curse or is it a virtue that elevates us to the highest form of life?

One of my children became quite irritable recently, saying to me, “Where were you? I’ve been calling for 3 days, and no one answered I was worried.”

I smiled a warm smile.

The torch has been passed.

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More Smiles and Ponderings

Filed under: Mike's Posts

Here are some funny things to ponder (thanks Steph):

Why do doctors leave the room while you change? They’re going to see you naked anyway.
Why do toasters always have a setting that burns the toast to a horrible crisp, which no decent human being would eat?
If Jimmy cracks corn and no one cares, why is there a song about him?
Can a hearse carrying a corpse drive in the carpool lane?
If the professor on Gilligan’s Island can make a radio out of a coconut, why can’t he fix a hole in a boat?
Why does Goofy stand erect while Pluto remains on all fours? They’re both dogs!
If Wile E. Coyote had enough money to buy all that ACME crap, why didn’t he just buy dinner?
Why is “bra” singular and “panties” plural?
If corn oil is made from corn, and vegetable oil is made from vegetables, what is baby oil made from?
If electricity comes from electrons, does morality come from morons?
Do the Alphabet song and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star have the same tune?
Why did you just try singing the two songs above?
Did you ever notice that when you blow in a dog’s face, he gets mad at you, but when you take him for a car ride, he sticks his head out the window?

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So You Want to Be A Mom?

Filed under: Mike's Posts

Here’s a funny one for you parents or expecting parents!

By the way, the first official Meeting of the Moms , a 5 day national summit for moms who are at all stages of life, is happening in the Fall. This will be a life-changing, extraordinary event! Please check out www.momference.com for more information.

Enjoy the post.

****

So you want to be a mom? Thinking about having children?

True preparation for parenthood at any age….

Lesson 1
Go to the supermarket.
Arrange to have your salary paid directly to their head office.
Go home.
Pick up the paper.
Read it for the last time.

Lesson 2
Before you finally go ahead and have children, find a couple who already
are parents.
Berate them about their…
1. Methods of discipline.
2. Lack of patience.
3. Appallingly low tolerance levels.
4. Allowing their children to run wild.

Suggest ways in which they might improve their child’s sleeping habits,
toilet training, table manners and overall behavior. Enjoy it. It will
be the last time in your life that you will have all the answers.

Lesson 3
To discover how the nights will feel…
1. Walk around the living room from 5PM to 10PM carrying a wet bag
weighing approximately 8-12 pounds, with a radio turned to static (or
some other obnoxious sound) playing loudly.
2. At 10PM, put the bag down, set the alarm for midnight, and go to
sleep.
3. Get up at 12 and walk around the living room again, with the bag,
until 1AM.
4. Set the alarm for 3 AM.
5. As you can’t get back to sleep, get up at 2AM and make a drink.
6. Go to bed at 2:45AM.
7. Get up at 3AM when the alarm goes off.
8. Sing songs in the dark until 4AM.
9. Get up. Make breakfast. Keep this up for 5 years. Look cheerful.

Lesson 4
Can you stand the mess children make? To find out…
1. Smear peanut butter onto the sofa and jam onto the curtains.
2. Hide a piece of raw chicken behind the stereo and leave it there all
summer.
3. Stick your fingers in the flower bed.
4. Then rub them on the clean walls.
5. Cover the stains with crayons. How does that look?

Lesson 5
Dressing small children is not as easy as it seems.
1. buy a live octopus and a small bag made of loose mesh 2. Attempt to
put the octopus into the bag so that none of the arms hang out.

Time allowed for this - all morning.

Lesson 6
1.Take an egg carton. Using a pair of scissors and a pot of paint, turn
it into an alligator.
2. Now take the tube from a roll of toilet paper. Using only scotch tape
and a piece of foil, turn it into an attractive Christmas candle.
3. Last, take a milk carton, a ping-pong ball, and an empty packet of
Cocoa Puffs. Make an exact replica of the Eiffel Tower.

Lesson 7
Forget the BMW and buy a station wagon. And don’t think you can leave
it out in the driveway spotless and shining. Family cars don’t look
like that.
1. Buy a chocolate ice cream cone and put it in the glove compartment.
Leave it there.
2. Get a dime. Stick it in the tape or CD player.
3. Take a family size package of chocolate cookies. Mash them into the
back seat.
4. Run a garden rake along both sides of the car. There. Perfect.

Lesson 8
Get ready to go out.
1. Wait outside the bathroom for a half an hour.
2. Go out the front door.
3. Come in again
4. Go out
5. come back in
6. go back out again.
7. Walk down the front walk.
8. Walk back up it.
9. Walk back down it again.
10. Walk very slowly down the road for five minutes, stopping,
inspecting minutely, and asking at least 6 questions about each
cigarette butt, piece of used chewing gum, dirty tissue, and dead insect
along the way.
11. Retrace your steps.
12. Scream that you have had as much as you can stand, until the
neighbors come out and stare at you.
13. Give up and go back into the house.

You are now just about ready to try taking a small child for a walk.

Lesson 9
Go to the local supermarket. Take with you the nearest thing you can
find to a preschool child (a full grown goat is excellent) If you
intend to have more than one child, take more than one goat.
1. buy your week’s groceries without letting the goats out of your
sight.
2. Pay for everything the goat eats or destroys.

Until you can accomplish this, do not even contemplate having children.

Lesson 10
1. Make a small hole in the side of a melon and hollow it out.
2. Suspend it from the ceiling and swing it from side to side.
3. Now get a bowl of soggy Cheerios and attempt to spoon them into the
swaying melon by pretending to be an airplane.
4. Continue until half the Cheerios are gone.
5. Tip half of the remainder into your lap. The other half just throw
up into the air.
You are now ready to feed a 9-month old baby.

Lesson 11
Learn the names of every character from Sesame Street, Dora the
Explorer, Barney, and Disney. Watch nothing else on TV for five years.

Lesson 12
Make a recording of Fran Drescher saying “mommy” repeatedly. (important:
no more than a four second delay between each “mommy”) An occasional
crescendo to the volume of a supersonic jet is required.

Play this recording in your car everywhere you go for the next five
years.

Lesson 13
Put on your finest work attire. Pick a day in which you have an
important meeting.
1. Take a cup of cream, put in 1 cup of lemon juice, and stir.
2. Dump half of the mixture on your shirt, and saturate a towel with the
other half.
3. Attempt to wipe off your shirt with the towel.
4. Do NOT change. You have no time.
5. Go directly to work.

Lesson 14
Go for a drive! But first…
1. Find one large tomcat and six pitbulls.
2. Borrow a child safety seat and put it in the back seat of your car.
3. Put the pitbulls in the front seat of your car.
4. While holding something fragile, strap the cat into the child seat.
5. Run some errands, removing and replacing the cat at each stop.

You are now ready to run errands with a toddler.

(Thanks to Suki for sharing this with me)

*****

SHARE A SMILE!

If anything above rekindled a memory, smile or even a belly laugh of your own, please share it with us by replying to this post! We could all use an extra smile in our day.

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May 29, 2007

A Mom’s Worry

May 11, 2007

More Smiles and Ponderings

April 11, 2007

So You Want to Be A Mom?

Recently Posted:

Links:

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