Karma~ It's a Crying Shame

When my daughter was little, she was a cryer. She cried at everything as a child. During Preschool, she cried at snack time, she did not like what they served....healthy snacks....she hated them, and she cried. Everyday.

She cried at Kindergarten graduation. I have no idea why, she just cried. Picture day at school, yea you guessed it, she cried. Dance class... yep that's right, she cried. And don't let me even get started about going to the doctor....the water works turned on the minute we got in the car.

School photo....crying for the camera.

This routine continued on throughout most of elementary school. The only difference was the crying situations were a bit different. As she got older, the crying episodes were more over difficult situations she preferred to not be in. She cried over best friends finding new best friends. Oh, and she still cried over dance classes, girl scout meetings, and sleep-overs. If she went to a sleep-over, more times than not we would get a phone call and have to go pick her up in the night.

Thankfully, she grew out of those embarrassing episodes of hysterical crying. Hysterical in the sense that she would not stop, would not talk about it, and did not want to be comforted. She would just bow her head, rub her eyes and just cry. I am serious here.

This is usually the look I got after a crying spell.....

I can not tell you how embarrassing it was for someone to say "Alisha just sat there and cried...blah...blah...blah." I was helpless in aiding the situation, I had no idea what to do. I was so sure that this was a reflection of poor parenting...I could not figure out the "why" of the crying , and I was convinced that surely I was the cause of it in some way. It was a tough time. Really. For me that is.

Last weekend, Alisha and I were on our way to the mall and Steve was leaving to get Alisha's car inspected. He left before we did, and when we got to the highway, there was a wreck in the opposite direction we were going but in the direction I thought Steve had gone. The wreck had traffic backed up really bad. Well, my imagination got the best of me. I was sure he had been in that wreck. We called his cell phone 25 plus times, and he did not answer. I kept calling... Nothing. By the time we arrived at the mall, in my mind, he was either too hurt to call me back, at the hospital, or something worse.

I was really upset by now but was trying not to show it. Common sense told me my imagination was running wild. But common sense did not really come into play here. Was he OK? Was he hurt? What was I going to do without him? Who would walk Alisha down the aisle at her wedding? I tell ya' crazy thoughts were running through my mind, And here I was at the mall of all places, and surely bad news was on the way.

When Steve finally called,(he had left his cell phone at home, of all things), I was so upset at thinking my husband was surely gone and I was a new widow and at the mall shopping with my daughter that I just burst into tears. I could not help it. I could not stop it. I was so relieved he was fine and giving me a hard time for acting so stupid, the tears just came.

And Alisha just kept saying,"Mom...Mom...Stop. Mom....stop-it....MOOOMMM--STOOOP!"

This silly crying spell lasted briefly, I got a grip. Really. And we had a great shopping trip after that was over with. Nothing like a good cry over a worked up imagination to cleanse the soul.

I don't know what provoked all of that nonsense...hormones I am guessing, I usually don't have episodes of tears and wild thoughts running through my head...well, forget the wild thought part of that, I guess I do have a problem with that one.

But what was funny was Alisha looked at me like I used to look at her all of those years ago when the tears flowed like rain and I could not get her to stop. Stellar embarrassing moment, pure and simple.

I see very few tears these days. I am so glad this smile has replaced the tears.

Well, it's really funny how our kids grow up, leave all the woes of childhood behind and quite frankly forget that they ever acted in a less than perfect manner. Then one day, it happens. Their own mother cries in public, without notice, in their presence with lots of people around gawking, and does not stop. Well, I stopped, it just took a minute. But the embarrassment was the same...THE SAME.

Only this time, it was the child not the mom getting red in the face and pleading for the tears to stop. Karma man....it will get ya' every time.
~Good Stuff

***Alisha, Thanks in advance for being the subject of much of this post... I love you today just as much as I did when you were little....even with the tears. I know you think I am losing it.....I will try and hold it together for a few more years!