{"id":3163,"date":"2014-04-30T16:28:26","date_gmt":"2014-04-30T22:28:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/?p=3163"},"modified":"2014-05-01T15:06:21","modified_gmt":"2014-05-01T21:06:21","slug":"have-a-good-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/?p=3163","title":{"rendered":"Have a good day"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I was a teen-ager, and was heading out to school for the day, my mother would say, \u201cMAKE IT a good day!\u201d<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Naw.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>No pressure, or anything.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>And why are you saying that?!?<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Do you think I have a PROBLEM with having a good day?<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>I always KNEW YOU HATED ME!!! <\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>WHY DOES EVERYONE HATE ME?!? <\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Despite the teenage angst, I did get the point.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Which was: <\/span>\u00a0<\/span>How your day goes is up to you – so make it good<\/span>, dammit!<\/span><\/em>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>[I actually added the dammit part; Mom\u2019s most likely horrified now.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>But I never was her favorite anyway.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Refer to angst,\u00a0teenage – subcategory:\u00a0lots of,\u00a0above]<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Then, when I was a grown-up, I had a colleague.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>And I say \u201chad\u201d because I no longer have a job; <\/span>\u00a0<\/span>And the colleague in question is deceased.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>If it\u2019s not one thing, it\u2019s another, right?<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Rest in Peace, <\/span>Remotee Four<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

And this colleague had four kids, most of whom were teenagers at-the-time.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>And they had this ritual they would go through before they left the house.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>I can\u2019t remember now exactly what the ritual was because it\u2019s lost in the sands of time which fill my head, then get displaced by 80\u2019s songs and subsequently spill out my ears and onto\u00a0the floor \u2013 which someone then has to clean up. <\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>For free.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Because it\u2019s not like anyone around here is getting PAID to sweep the grit off the floor. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But I do remember being truly inspired by my colleague\u2019s love for his children, and what he said to his kids when they left the house each day.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>It was something along the lines of, \u201cI\u2019m proud of you, now go out and do something wonderful today.\u201d <\/span>\u00a0<\/span>I know, RIGHT?<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>I\u2019m getting choked up just thinking about it too.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>We are SUCH twins!<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Yay, Twins!!<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

And once I became a mom with school age kids, I boarded the send-your-kids-off-to-school-with-inspirational-words train.<\/span><\/p>\n

But I made a mistake.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>And accidentally told my kids\u00a0about how \u2013 just about every summer of my youth \u2013 we would spend time at a cottage by a lake.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>It was in New Hampshire (Hamp-shuh!) and it was soo-pah doo-pah!<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>But the cottage was on the rustic side and the plumbing drained into a septic tank, which would fill up quickly when big crowds were around.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>And unless you took evasive measures, you\u2019d soon be squelching through a front yard full of bad smells. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Evasive measures included posting a fun sign on the wall in the bathroom about not flushing the toilet EVERY time it was used.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>What the sign said, I remember to this day.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>I even waxed poetic about it to my kids.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Flash forward to the future, where it\u2019s ACTUALLY my robot maid who cleans the sand up off the floor.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Her name is Rosie and she works for free.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Because if she ever DID ask for money, I\u2019d flip her switch to \u201coff.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>She\u2019s a robot afterall and she\u2019s not that great of a cook, since we\u2019re being honest. <\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Anyway, every morning after Judy and Elroy have walked Astro, but before they all pile into Hubby\u2019s bubble-topped spaceship, [Reminder: we flashed forward to the future.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>So please don\u2019t act all confused about these future-y references.] I hug and kiss Hubby and the kids and tell them I love them.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Then I say to them, \u201cHave a good day, have lots of fun\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

To which the kids reply, \u201cBut please don\u2019t flush for number one!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Inspiring, no?<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I was a teen-ager, and was heading out to school for the day, my mother would say, \u201cMAKE IT a good day!\u201d\u00a0 Naw.\u00a0 No pressure, or anything.\u00a0 And why are you saying that?!?\u00a0 Do you think I have a PROBLEM with having a good day?\u00a0 I always KNEW YOU HATED ME!!! \u00a0\u00a0WHY DOES EVERYONE […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[13],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3163"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3163"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3178,"href":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3163\/revisions\/3178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}