When it comes to parenting and humor, there are some pretty easy pot shots to take. It’s the frazzled, up-all-night mom hooked up to a coffee IV. It’s the befuddled new dad who puts a diaper on backwards. It’s the doting grandmother who lets baby crawl across a bed of nails because that’s how it was done back in her day.
But there’s one more stereotype we all laugh at, me included. It’s the mom who thrives on caffeine and survives on alcohol. You get the humor. It’s why this mug was once for sale on Etsy and is no longer available (I’m assuming it sold out).
But imagine if I bought that mug and used it every day. I don’t actually drink coffee but I do have a mug of tea every morning. It would be funny drinking it in front of my girlfriends. Even my husband might laugh at it. But my son? I’m not sure he’d get the humor. And even if he did, imagine what it would make him think.
He’s 8 years old and getting to that impressionable age where his parents’ attitude towards alcohol is going to shape his very real exposure to alcohol in the next few years. Yes, I know it’s a scary thing to think about and we all want to say Not my kid! but we all know it could be our kid.
So – what to do? We all know parenting requires a sense of humor. And it probably requires a little bit of wine. But the connection is not always something we want our children to make if we want them to grow up with healthy attitudes toward alcohol.
During the month of May, I challenge you to Refresh Your Funny both online and off. Think about humor and alcohol and how it’s perceived by your kids. Bottom line is we want to keep them kids as long as we can. And we don’t want to glamorize alcohol as a way to better deal with life. We want them to respect the adult choices we make.
But if you’re like me, you still want to have a good laugh, all in the name of parenting. Below is a collection of some of my favorite non-alcohol related pins that should make you laugh and will be totally a good idea to share without permanently damaging your child. At least, that’s what we hope.
Source: Cheezburger
Source: Joy of Tech
And that’s just a few. There’s plenty more where that came from.
So the next time you’re having a bad parenting day and you reach for that glass of wine or that Twinkie or whatever your vice is, know that your kids are watching. And make sure they know that it’s not funny that we drink wine or eat Twinkies. It’s actually more like a poor nutritional choice but you get the idea. We are setting an example with what we do both online and offline.
Next time you post or share or tweet, stop and refresh your funny so that your kids are getting the right message about alcohol. Please join me throughout the month of May to find a more refreshing way to be funny. Share with me the parts of parenting that make YOU laugh and tag it with #RefreshYourFunny. Because we all need a good laugh to survive this thing called parenting.
This post is part of my compensated role as a #TalkEarly blogger, an initiative from Responsibility.org. Talking with your kids about alcohol is an important topic to me which is why I accepted this role. Please note that all opinions expressed here are my own.
