What can you laugh about?

September 1, 2010

When us kids do happen to get together, we do the usual " have you talked to mum

lately? " and compare stories of what she has done/said lately. If we are in a

good enough mood, we might compare things that we can laugh about. It takes some

effort at times, but I think it is good for us, and brings us a little closer

together. Truely, the things she does can be comical at times.

Once I went with mum to a picture framers. She fancied herself to be a great

artist, and she was pretty good in her early days. She wanted a picture framed,

and while we were talking to the elderly framer he asked how to pronounce our

last name.

Her current husband is of Dutch descent, and Mum did her thing where she half

closes her eyes, puffs out her chest, lifts her chin and declares in a superior

voice " it is pronounced RRRRRR-OUT-men! Its Dutch! " . The guy smiled, and asked

if she could speak Dutch. Mum replied " but of course " . Now, my mother cant speak

a damn word. Neither can her husband. At this point Im standing there with one

eyebrow up, wondering what on earth possessed her to say such a thing.

The framer smiled even wider and began rattling on to her in Dutch! There is

nothing as wonderful in the world than the look of dismay and " oh crap, what do

I do now? " that crossed her face. I had to control myself not to fall on the

floor weeing myself with laughter while she stammered and stuttered through some

excuse about not having practised for ages. It was gold. Needless to say, she

packed up her pictures and stalked out of the store, furious.

We lived on a farm in the middle of nowhere when I was a kid. Mum was apparently

hanging washing out while us kids were at school, on a line behind the shed,

300m from the house, in her undies. Suddenly a car pulls up and people get out.

Mum panics (reputation is huge to her) and runs behind the shed. As they walk

around the shed to the house, she walks the other way so they cant see her. She

didnt realise that the walls of the shed are elevated - there is a large gap

between the walls and the floor - the people heard her footsteps, looked under

the walls and saw there was someone on the other side of the shed. So they

walked faster, chasing her around and around the shed. Mum would have been

FRANTIC!!! How DARE anyone see her in her underwear! She would never live it

down!!! Anyway, they got sick of chasing and left, and Mum scampered into the

house and it took days for her to get over it. I still get the giggles when I

think about it - for her that would have been an ultimate embaressment.

I think being able to laugh about irrational behaviour is a good thing. Often

when us kids are together it stops us from getting into a morbid " mum screwed us

up " conversation, which ends is us all getting mad. There is a time and a place

for laughing at the stupidness of it all.

September 1, 2010

Ha ha, okay the fuck you part did make me laugh. Really hard. Loudly.

Welcome to the FREAK SHOW! (that's what I always tell myself)

>

> there is a big fight I always laugh about. it's not funny at all and I

> still have a scar but to me it is the perfect illustration of my family.

>

> I cut my finger opening a can (i.e. the scar I still have) and went to ask

> nada for bandaids. She screams at me 'how can you be so stupid to cut your

> finger on a can opener' blah blah blah. Up to that point I'd been brave but

> then i started bawling, my brother jumped in and started chiding me about

> 'crying like a baby', then my father was sitting there and told me to put a

> bandaid on it (not at all out of concern, just annoyance) and when I said we

> didn't have any, he seized on the opportunity to start an argument since he

> and my mother were fighting by yelling at the top of his lungs, " what kind

> of mother wouldn't have any bandaids in a house full of children " and they

> were off to the races in another argument. Meanwhile I'm standing at the

> sink bleeding everywhere...I remember my hand shaking and stuff. I don't

> know why but every time I think about him starting with 'what kind of

> mother...' I just burst out laughing. it wasn't funny then, but it's so d*mn

> typical of the emotionally charged insanity I lived in every day of my life.

> I think I was around 8 or 10 when that happened.

>

> another time I remember is when nada and fada were having their almost

> daily fights about money and nada was begging fada to pay the bills and fada

> finally relented and wrote out all the checks, but he wrote " f*ck you " in

> the memo section of every one of the checks. apparently that was their last

> checkbook so nada was forced to send the checks out like that.

>

> sigh...

>

> >

> > When us kids do happen to get together, we do the usual " have you talked

> to mum lately? " and compare stories of what she has done/said lately. If we

> are in a good enough mood, we might compare things that we can laugh about.

> It takes some effort at times, but I think it is good for us, and brings us

> a little closer together. Truely, the things she does can be comical at

> times.

> >

> > Once I went with mum to a picture framers. She fancied herself to be a

> great artist, and she was pretty good in her early days. She wanted a

> picture framed, and while we were talking to the elderly framer he asked how

> to pronounce our last name.

> > Her current husband is of Dutch descent, and Mum did her thing where she

> half closes her eyes, puffs out her chest, lifts her chin and declares in a

> superior voice " it is pronounced RRRRRR-OUT-men! Its Dutch! " . The guy

> smiled, and asked if she could speak Dutch. Mum replied " but of course " .

> Now, my mother cant speak a damn word. Neither can her husband. At this

> point Im standing there with one eyebrow up, wondering what on earth

> possessed her to say such a thing.

> > The framer smiled even wider and began rattling on to her in Dutch! There

> is nothing as wonderful in the world than the look of dismay and " oh crap,

> what do I do now? " that crossed her face. I had to control myself not to

> fall on the floor weeing myself with laughter while she stammered and

> stuttered through some excuse about not having practised for ages. It was

> gold. Needless to say, she packed up her pictures and stalked out of the

> store, furious.

> >

> > We lived on a farm in the middle of nowhere when I was a kid. Mum was

> apparently hanging washing out while us kids were at school, on a line

> behind the shed, 300m from the house, in her undies. Suddenly a car pulls up

> and people get out. Mum panics (reputation is huge to her) and runs behind

> the shed. As they walk around the shed to the house, she walks the other way

> so they cant see her. She didnt realise that the walls of the shed are

> elevated - there is a large gap between the walls and the floor - the people

> heard her footsteps, looked under the walls and saw there was someone on the

> other side of the shed. So they walked faster, chasing her around and around

> the shed. Mum would have been FRANTIC!!! How DARE anyone see her in her

> underwear! She would never live it down!!! Anyway, they got sick of chasing

> and left, and Mum scampered into the house and it took days for her to get

> over it. I still get the giggles when I think about it - for her that would

> have been an ultimate embaressment.

> >

> > I think being able to laugh about irrational behaviour is a good thing.

> Often when us kids are together it stops us from getting into a morbid " mum

> screwed us up " conversation, which ends is us all getting mad. There is a

> time and a place for laughing at the stupidness of it all.

> >

>

September 1, 2010

I know what you mean! Sometimes, things are just funny, even though to anyone

else they arent.

One particular sister and I have a good laugh about the rubbish mum says about

us to the other. We have to laugh, because to take it seriously would make us

cry (and does some of the time).

Heres another bizarre thing my mum did once- I had my best friend over at my

house on the weekend. We were playing outside, and she decided to go in to grab

a drink or something. She opened the door, and then slammed it shut and came

running back with her mouth open. Apparently my mother was standing right inside

the door, talking on the phone without her false teeth in, butt naked.

When I went inside and told mum to go put some clothes on, she got upset that my

friend was so rude to see her naked. She couldnt see that standing around the

house naked made it her own fault!

Another time my mother wouldnt let me go on school camp, and told the school

teacher it was because she had an affair with an arabian prince years before, he

was watching and would kidnap us kids. I was as embarressed as a kid can get,

but us girls have a good laugh about it now.

My friend and I still giggle about things like this when we get together for

drinks.

>

> there is a big fight I always laugh about. it's not funny at all and I still

have a scar but to me it is the perfect illustration of my family.

>

> I cut my finger opening a can (i.e. the scar I still have) and went to ask

nada for bandaids. She screams at me 'how can you be so stupid to cut your

finger on a can opener' blah blah blah. Up to that point I'd been brave but then

i started bawling, my brother jumped in and started chiding me about 'crying

like a baby', then my father was sitting there and told me to put a bandaid on

it (not at all out of concern, just annoyance) and when I said we didn't have

any, he seized on the opportunity to start an argument since he and my mother

were fighting by yelling at the top of his lungs, " what kind of mother wouldn't

have any bandaids in a house full of children " and they were off to the races in

another argument. Meanwhile I'm standing at the sink bleeding everywhere...I

remember my hand shaking and stuff. I don't know why but every time I think

about him starting with 'what kind of mother...' I just burst out laughing. it

wasn't funny then, but it's so d*mn typical of the emotionally charged insanity

I lived in every day of my life. I think I was around 8 or 10 when that

happened.

>

> another time I remember is when nada and fada were having their almost daily

fights about money and nada was begging fada to pay the bills and fada finally

relented and wrote out all the checks, but he wrote " f*ck you " in the memo

section of every one of the checks. apparently that was their last checkbook so

nada was forced to send the checks out like that.

>

> sigh...

>

September 2, 2010

this makes me think of a show I saw on tv last night where the family were

nudists, and the girl said that the first time she introduced her boyfriend to

her grandmother she ran up to him, completely naked and gave him a great big

hug. oy.

> >

> > there is a big fight I always laugh about. it's not funny at all and I still

have a scar but to me it is the perfect illustration of my family.

> >

> > I cut my finger opening a can (i.e. the scar I still have) and went to ask