Adorkably Me

One of the most amazing things about children is how they look at the world. Everything is new and exciting and they believe in every fairy tale. Everything seems totally possible. I love that. As a parent, it’s my job to help them hold on to that as long as I can, which is not always easy. I am not ashamed to say I’ve done much silliness to keep this up. Being a single mom, it can get a bit tricky. This morning marks one of those moments where I am glad that I’m a pretty quick thinker.

Eldest monkey is 6. She just lost her third tooth and it’s one she’s been wiggling for a solid 3 weeks now. Talk about stubborn! Well, she lost it at a restaurant Wednesday night when she was with their dad and his parents. Then dad took the tooth home with him and they spent the next two nights with grandma and grandpa.

In trying to wrestle their dad down for details on when I would be getting them home today, he did mention she lost the tooth. I honestly didn’t think that it he would bail on the Toothy Fairy though. Sure enough, Eldest gets in the car and the disappointment washes over her face “Mommy, I don’t understand why daddy would take my tooth and why the Tooth Fairy didn’t come.”  Grrrr…

I managed to keep them distracted when we got in the door long enough to copy and paste the TF note I’d emailed myself from our parking spot into word, change it to the Tooth Fairy font (yes she has her own font, as does Santa), print it out, wrap up a dollar and slide it up under her pillow and plug their little Christmas tree in.

Then I asked them if they’d plugged their tree in when they got home because it wasn’t on before and they took the bait. “IT MUST HAVE BEEN THE TOOTH FAIRY MOMMY!!!”

Balance has now been restored, disappointment gone, belief in tact. It’s a good thing I had my coffee this morn. 

Seriously, who bails on the Tooth Fairy though????

It would seem this was some sort of  news recently when it came to my attention that rumors were flying around locally speculating about me having sex with someone in particular. Were we seen groping on each other in public? Hell even holding hands? Nope. Did I tweet “Thanks for making sweet hot love to me repeatedly last night” or “Thanks for banging the Hell outta me, damn you’re good”?  Nope. In fact not anywhere near close to any of that. Just some randomness someone thought it would be fun to make up and spread around. 

Really??

How sad does one’s life have to be where that seems like fun? And how little must I or the other person mean to you or any of the people involved in spreading that around? 

I know this may come as a shock but we are GROWN ASS ADULTS. I know, right? 

In fact, I’m a grown ass adult raising two girls and teaching them that behavior like that is not acceptable. I’m also a grown ass adult working on opening up a business. But, why stop and think about any sort of impact your fun would have on the life or reputation of the people involved? Let alone their feelings.  No, we mustn’t do that. 

Truth of the matter is I adore the Hell out of the person that I am allegedly screwing. If they had to pick a random person, I’m proud they picked him. (No that statement does not mean we’re having sex). He doesn’t deserve any of this either.  I know people will be people and yes, Twitter is like High School. But, that doesn’t mean that it’s okay. We wonder why there are bulimic 3rd graders and kids bullying others to the point where they are killing themselves. It’s because there are adults out there that behave like this. Not just the ones that start the rumors and gossip, but the ones that feel it’s okay to spread it on. You’re just as guilty. #truthbat

Will this rumor cause bulimia or am I going to go into some downward spiral of depression? Nope, they don’t define me, I define me. The rumor itself is probably pretty harmless. It’s the behavior I’m calling out.  When you think about it gossiping is nothing more than passive aggressive bullying. If we have any hope of our children learning to stop gossiping and bullying, than we need to lead by example. Period. #truthbat

So, here’s a thought, the next time you have a friend come to you with gossip- do yourselves and them a favor. Put on your big boy/girl pants and tell them what they are doing is childish and not acceptable. You know if they are coming to you talking about someone else that they are probably doing the same to others about you. That’s the kind of friend no one needs. #truthbat

I do owe them one small thank you though. In the past I would have taken this personally and probably been hurt by it. I did consider at least one or two of them friends at some point. Clearly I was mistaken by that. The fact that I’m not only not hurt, but am pissed about it and defending myself means that my shakabuku last week has definitely stuck.  They can pretty much count themselves as people I will no longer associate with on any level though. Yup, severing unhealthy relationships. Another yay for me. 

So Merry Christmas Gossip Hens! May Santa bring you a giant bottle of “Grow the Hell Up.”