I’m Ready

  When you’re young, many people set up an overall timeline and specific expectations for yourselves; when you’ll get married, how many children you’ll have, where you’ll live, your occupation, and so on. As you age, reality hits and you realize that oftentimes those were either pipe dreams, needed to be added a lot further down on your timeline, or not what you really wanted. The one thing you cannot easily predict is when you’ll get married.

 

When I was growing up, for some reason or another twenty-six was the magic age of when I would get hitched. I’ll get married at 26 and finish having kids by 30. By the time I hit 22, I was teetering on whether to even get married. A friend of mine and I even made a pact that if we weren’t married or in the process by 30, we were going to become nuns. By 26, marriage was off the table and I just wanted a long-term boyfriend (and maybe we could live together after some years). It’s funny how time changes you and life transforms you, your thoughts, your priorities and standards.

 

Is there a best age to get married? Yes, but you cannot predict it. Only time can tell when you are mentally, physically, financially, and emotionally ready. Once you’ve reached that point, then that is the perfect age. When you’re twelve, you cannot say how put together you’ll be twenty years from then because shit happens. Also, if your age ends in -teen, then I definitely think you’re too young to be thinking about what ‘forever’ means. I do, however, believe that if you aren’t ready on all of those different levels then you shouldn’t even attempt. Marriage is an investment; time, effort, financial- the works. Nowadays, people (especially celebrities) only prepare for the wedding and not the marriage or the future. That’s purely immature thinking from a person who is clearly not ready. You’ll know when that time comes.

 

What’s your take on this? Did you have a specific timeline for marriage and family? And if so, did you meet your goals on time?

 

My Child

  It seems like more and more “parents” are hurting their children. I put parents in quotation marks because no real parent would purposely leave their child in a hot car with the windows up. No parent would throw their baby up against the wall. No parent would allow their child to sit on the roof of a moving car.

 

It sickens me to hear on a daily basis (it seems) how people are inventing new ways to hurt the children they brought into this world. They chose to bring them into the world. Is parenting easy? Hell no. Sometimes do you feel like smacking your child into next week? Of course. But what does a child have to do for you to do any of the examples above.

 

If you don’t want your child, either don’t have them in the first place or put them up for adoption. There are plenty of people who actually want to be parents, but for some reason or another cannot. Defenseless children do not deserve to be abused. Children look to their parents for guidance, love, and protection. What message are you sending out if you mistreat them?

 

Now granted, there’s a thin line between spanking and abuse, but parents should know the difference. A little discipline pop (not ‘splat’ or ‘boom’) won’t kill them. But if you ever get upset enough to the point where you might do more harm than good, then you might want to walk away for a little bit. I just can’t take another news story about a child being killed at the hands of their own parents because they didn’t want them, they were drunk, or they were tired. Don’t bring these babies into the world only to kill them.

TMI

  Ever have a girlfriend who would tell you their whole life story when you only ask them, ‘How are you?’ What about a co-worker? A stranger? A lot of times the oversharing is so unnecessary and totally uncomfortable. I didn’t ask to hear about the who, what, where, why, and when of your brother’s ex-girlfriend’s surgery, or even what you went through in order to get to work this morning. Who cares!

 

People like that have at least three things going on: a. They don’t have anything of substance really going on in their life and they hope that you will share just as much as they do; b. They just like to talk (too damn much), especially about themselves; c. They are attempting to forget all of the effed up shit that’s going on in their own home.

 

Let me give you some examples. A is the type of person who will share things about everyone else in their life but themselves, unless something catastrophic happens. For instance, I don’t know where you live, but I know all about your brother and his dysfunctional relationship. “So what’s going on in your world,” I’ll pass, because the playing field is not even. I heard all about your brother without even asking and nothing about you, but you want to get all up in my business? No thanks.

 

B people have an ‘all or nothing’ approach; everything is either beyond fantastic in their life, or everything is horrible. So their conversation, for example, is more so about how they are the best lover, but in the next sentence, they talk about how everyone is trying to play them. They bring so much drama to their own lives that they don’t need friends, they need a therapist– someone who will actually want to talk to them and someone who will tell them in a polite way that it’s not always about them.

 

A C person is a person is a blend of the two; they talk about their surroundings and their life– every gory detail. For instance, I should not know everyone in your family by name and all of their ailments.

 

The problem I have with all of these people is that quite frankly, I don’t give a damn about your personal business and stop hoping that I will divulge as much as you. There are some things that don’t need to be discussed. Just let it be. These are the same people who are doing as much talking about you behind your back to someone else. I’d rather not spill my tea, thank you very much.

I’m Sorry, Everyone

  Apologies can either be very sincere or very shady. Of course it depends on how you say it; are you speaking from the heart, is it something you were forced to say, etc. As you can see, there are a number of variables that are involved in whether a person can fully believe and accept your words. Nobody has probably learned that valuable lesson more than Robin Thicke. Believe me when I say that this blog is not to judge his character, but merely a question.

 

Robin Thicke has been going on stage crying and recently released a whole album dedicated to his wife as a way to get her back. Everyone makes mistakes and we can only speculate on what really made Paula Patton give him the boot. But, my question is this- What has he done in private to make it up to her? Sometimes, we as the public, don’t need to hear all of your business. Sometimes, we as women, don’t require our men to humiliate themselves in the public for us. Yes, if you do something stupid enough to lose us, you need to do something (a lot of something) to get us back, but where does one cross the line?

 

I hate to talk about their business like this, but I feel like I’m doing people (especially the fellas) a little favor. Sometimes going over the top and bringing other people into your home, so to speak, is not a meaningful way to apologize. In Robin’s case, this looks more like a manipulation attempt to get other people to feel sorry for him. Eventually people will say (if they haven’t already), ‘Paula, give that man another chance. He’s going around the world singing and crying over you.’ The ball is now in her court and their mess is now in the street.

 

Ladies and gentlemen, there has to be a happy medium here. Don’t just mutter an empty I’m sorry and think that all’s well with the world. And on the other hand, don’t do the Thicke plan and dedicate an album to someone who left you and promote it looking all pitiful. Should you ever end up in a similar situation, realize that a sincere apology takes a lot of time and effort. Trust doesn’t build overnight and your actions afterwards will be scrutinized, with good reason. What will you do to prove that you won’t make the same mistake twice? What happens if you do get your partner to come back, then what? What will it take to gain their trust again? Assess your own actions. What would you do if your partner did what you did? What would it take to get you back? Why do you need it to work? What will change?  At the end of the day, you have to know the person you’re with in order to “win your campaign.” Would your partner need you to get on your hands and knees and beg for forgiveness at home, require you to shout it from roof of a nearby tall building, or a handmade poem and flowers? Pushing the envelope and going through extreme efforts can backfire, so really consider what’s best for you and your boo- privately.

 

Just Don’t Do It

  A couple of years ago I blogged about not leaving the house wearing certain things. Since I’m seeing more and more craziness as the weather gets warmer, this bears repeating.

 

– Pajamas: These are meant for the bed. I don’t understand why this is so hard to understand. How bout this– if you leave the house with the same pajamas on that you wore last night, all that tells me is that you didn’t bathe before you left house and you don’t care who knows.

 

– Slippers: Do I even need to explain?

 

– Shower caps/ doo rags/ bonnets: All of these serve the purpose of the privacy of your own home.

 

– Beaters: Beaters are fine to wear under things, but as your only shirt…. not attractive, even if you have muscles.

 

– Ity Bity Shorts: If I mistake your shorts for draws, you shouldn’t wear them out.

 

– Cowboy boots and shorts: Or cowboy boots in the summer period. Put them damn things up. For good.

 

What did I miss?