Hannah, one of my brilliant daughters, made an interesting observation today.
In our middle class suburb, we are considered a bit "different". Not in the "here come the cops again" way, but in the "my, what an interesting collection of dancing skeletons" and "you like your kids music?" kind of way. Beyond these superficial oddities, however, we are the traditional, two parent, two kid, two dog "Leave it to Beaver" type family.
Hannah has noticed that the "normal" families, who outwardly appear like the 21st century suburban norm, are frequently dysfunctional nightmares. This is not news to most of us, of course, but I want to share Hannah's analogy between the Addams Family, The Munsters, and real life.
The Munsters expend most of their energy trying to understand and replicate what they perceive to be "normal" behavior. Lily wants nothing more than to have tea with ladies in pillbox hats. Herman wants to be "one of the boys" down at the funeral parlor. Eventually all this social striving simply leads to family strife.
The Addams family, on the other hand, pays no attention to the outside world. They are friendly, but ultimately dismissive of those who dissaprove or can't understand thier values and preferences. The children play well together, happily blowing things up with their favorite uncle. Morticia and Gomez are not only happily married, but still in love.
Our girls have always said that Bubs and I are like Morticia and Gomez, but the similarities thankfully go beyond our breaking into dance at odd moments. After years of self-doubt, we have come to embrace our particular style of parenting and living. Our children are interesting and charming, Bubs and I are still in love, and the rocky road of life is our rollercoaster, not Death Race 2000.
Here's to 2007, and may we all find our internal Addams Family!
8 comments:
Amen!
What a bunch of smart cookies. As long as the cookies aren't made with real Girl Guides. (that's about all I remember from the movie but I did love the tv series).
"...the rocky road of life is our rollercoaster, not Death Race 2000."
Full of scares and fun. Even if I do keep my eyes closed during the scary parts.
Manda, thank you for a lovely year-end reflection. What brought this on?
there is nothing wrong with being different. my moms type of parenting was a bit out of the box and I turned out perfectly fine.
Dale- The movies were OK, but the series was magic. Hipster-gothic.
Bubs - Hannah and I were cleaning, and she was expounding on life as she sees it. I was just taken with her insight.
Katy - to quote Johnny Yen, "Amen!"
You guys are awesome. We'd take you even if you were the Munsters.
What an awesome kid! You two clearly are great parents.
Thanks punchman and tenacious! I admit I'm very proud of my girls.
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