ME

ME

Friday, November 18, 2011

Where did all of the FUN go?

"Woo Hoo!"

I hear as my little man goes careening down the street as fast as his little legs can peddle with no hands on his handle bars.  My heart starts pounding as I watch what inevitably will become yet another trip to the emergency room.  I yell out to him “Stop!” “Slow down!” but today he chooses to ignore me and keeps on peddling.

Emergency averted, he is growing up and can handle himself this time.

A few minutes later as I catch up to him slowly peddling my beach cruiser he asks me “Mom, when did you become no fun?” 

Good question little man – I have been asking myself that a lot lately.

Recently, I’ve been back on the dating scene and a common question I get is “what do you do for fun?”  Why is this question so hard for me to answer? I mean I think I have fun? My friends and I laugh a lot and I have a good time doing whatever it is I’m doing, but what makes me ‘fun’?  I think I might have unknowingly crossed a certain threshold where “Fun” doesn’t exist and responsibility, practicality and parenthood took over.

Maybe I am now just valuing my responsibilities more in my 30’s than I did in my 20’s?  Gone are the nights of happy hours starting at 5 and ending at midnight three or four nights a week.  Now, happy hour is every other week, starting at 6:30 and home by 9:00.  Let’s face it, my friends and I now have jobs with responsibilities and can’t leave work at 5:00, nor can we leave our work at the ‘office’, we are now working before, during and after happy hour.

My friends and I still enjoy a good concert, sporting event and special event.  However, these days we drink 1 glass of beer with two waters and order fruit and pretzels at the concession stand.  We have personal trainers to meet in the morning and little men and women to get off to school before the sun comes up.

Our road trips are still very fun and full of laughter, but these days we plan months in advance, use our frequent flier miles to book our hotels and eat at sit down restaurants instead of at the fast food drive thru. So, maybe our “fun” met up with aging and maturity and became a bit more responsible? 

I think I need to invent my new definition of “Fun”.  Fun to me is seeing my little man experience new things, accomplish something he didn’t think he could and just being there for him.  Fun is laughing out loud with my girlfriends over a good bottle of wine and helping each other solve our dilemmas – whether they are marriage, dating, or work related.  Fun is a night at Bingo getting to know the local senior citizens and hearing their stories about their past winnings.  Fun is sealing a deal at work and accomplishing a goal.  There is no question that “Fun” for me involves memories, laughter and friends.  Too bad I’m not able to relay this to my little man with a quick answer on our bike ride.

I guess I’ll just have to show him that his mom is “Fun” by riding fast down the road without holding on to my handle bars!

1 comment:

  1. I love serendipity. This blog was exactly what I needed. In fact my internal thoughts were what happened to the old fun Monte? Is it age, having Noah, being consumed by this material American life? Your wisdom here brought me the perspective I was seeking, but couldn't quite reach. Up till now, your blogs have been entertaining to me, but this one...it was an oracle/proverb. In fact, before I read this, I even posted a quote on my FB wall from a famous playwright about FUN trying to get myself in the right frame of mind. Your blog hit the spot! Thank you, wise Fun friend!

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