Humor in Motherhood

Finding the humor in motherhood

Have you ever heard the expression: 'You have to laugh, or you'ld cry'? I think motherhood is a lot like that. But crying makes my face go all splotchy, so I prefer to laugh my way through, by finding the humor in motherhood.

And luckily there are lots of mom bloggers who have already found the humor in motherhood, and share the joy. Take for example Jen Singer of Mommasaid or The Bloggess.

Sometimes the humor in motherhood is playing hide and seek and it's hard to find. But I've found ways to sneak up on it, and discover it anyway. It's often hidden in the little things, in the ordinary slices of life. You bite down, and suddenly you realize: 'Hey, there's some humor in this slice! Quick, I need a pen and paper to write this down!' And then I run to my computer and start typing like a wild woman because after all, we don't live in the dark ages anymore! Who needs a pen and paper, when they've got a keyboard.

Coupons: that's all he got

Apart from looking for ánd finding the humor in motherhood it's very important to take care of yourself. After all: who else is gonna do it? Not your kids, that's for sure. They expect you to take care of thém. That is why I make sure to lobby for myself come Mother's Day so I get lots of great presents. My husband took the laid back approach and he paid the price on Father's Day! All he got were lots of self made coupons, that served our youngest son better than my husband.

One of the things that can be hard as a mom is that you always get blamed for everything. It doesn't even matter if you were around, you can be sure after all is said and done, it's your fault. And it's not just kids, husbands have this unfortunate tendency too. I wrote about this sad phenomenon in a post titled The Blame Game. Luckily I am in good company: God is right there with me.

As a mom you often have to visit therapists. Not because you need help, even though you do, but because you're a mom and that means you have to take your kids to théir therapist. That's how I ended up with a severe case of Speech Therapy Syndrome! Week after week I had to sit next to my son, yawning his way through his half hour of speech therapy. But sometimes therapist turn on you, even though you're just along for the ride. I was sipping my tea, minding my own business when suddenly my eldest son's therapist turned to me and said: 'Why are you being so hard on yourself?'

Luckily, most moms don't have to go it alone: they have a partner usually known as Dad or Husband. I like to use my husband as my secondant when the going gets rough. Even though his parenting skills could use some improvement. Unfortunately my husband and I have a little power struggle going on. We silently fight for first position in Whose the most tired and Who worked the hardest, and there's a lot of soup envy going on between us. So sometimes having a husband can be a perk, but other times your husband can be a jerk.

There's a lovely song by Comedian/musician Rob Paravonian that paints a beautiful picture of day to day motherhood. I can listen to it all day, because it's so funny. Especially this line: 'Don't worry! Mommies always scream into the pillow when they're happy!'



Where can you find the humour in motherhood?

As a mom I like lists: they are everything my kids are not. Neat, nice and orderly, and you can scratch through them. So let's make a list of places where you can find the humour in motherhood!

• Other mom bloggers. Especially the funny ones. The sad ones are usually sad.


• Songs about motherhood. Sue Fabisch has funny songs and of course there's the old classic by , who sings Momisms to the tune of William Tell Overture.


• Funny movies, like, featuring Uma Thurman. So the people of IMDB only gave it a 4.8, but I thought is was funny!


• The aforementioned slice of life!


• Your kids. Kids really do say the darndest things. Just make sure you laugh wíth them, not at them, or you'll be footing the bill for therapy for years to come!


• Your kids' teachers. Like when they tell you: 'We did a sociogram to determine little Pete's popularity and he's so unpopular he wasn't even it the sociagram anymore.' No, wait that's just plain painful.

According to the dictionary humor is: 'a comic, absurd, or incongruous quality causing amusement: the humor of a situation.' So then I had to look up the word incongruous which turns out to mean 'out of keeping or place; inappropriate; unbecoming'. So the humor in motherhood van be found in things that are out of keeping or place, inappropriate and unbecoming. I can relate!

Finding the humor in motherhood, is making sure the joke isn't on you.

Here's some humorous tales I wrote for you!