Not Everyone Gets Me, and That's Okay

Last week, I jokingly told Alana to have a mediocre day at school. Then she started crying. I will accept my Mother-of-the-Year award now, thanks. She did not get that I wasn't serious, and she thought that "mediocre" meant "bad", which it doesn't. Most of her days at school are probably closer to mediocre than great, but the irony of that is lost on a seven year old.

When I shared this information on Facebook I know most people thought it was funny. They get me. But I'm sure that there were people who didn't think it was amusing, and probably thought it was kind of mean. Those people don't get me. But that's okay. It is possible that I have become so fluent in sarcasm that people do not know when I'm joking. Most of the time I am probably joking, and people should know that, but its fine if they don't think its funny.

When I was a kid and I would ask my dad what we were having for dinner, he would often respond with something like lizard lips and frog legs. At first I believed him, until we ate fried chicken or something that was clearly not frog legs, as far as I know....When I was little I did not find this joke funny. I thought it was annoying. But now, as a parent, I cannot honestly say that I have never told my own children the same thing. They don't think its funny, but I don't care. I will crack myself up if I have to.

My children are kind of gullible, and my sense of humor insists that I take advantage of that. David has Alana 100% convinced that his middle name is "Justice" and we both laugh about that all the time. His middle name is not Justice, but she doesn't have to know that. She wouldn't get why its funny. Maybe she will when she's an adult, about the same time that she starts to think that telling your kid to "have a mediocre day" is hilarious. I already think that, maybe my sense of humor is just more refined than hers...

I should probably work on my timing, so that I offend fewer people who don't realize that I only tease people I like, but that would suck the fun out of it. If people don't get me, and they don't get my weird, dry, possibly offensive sense of humor, that's okay, because I still think I'm funny and that's all that matters.