Brandice Is Ignoring You
There is something about family that is absolutely wonderful. They’re supportive, loving and offer a shoulder to cry on in times of stress. They’re the ones you can’t wait to spend the holidays with. It’s family you want to share your wedding day with and you hope they’ll be there to welcome your newborn into the world. There is the part of you that’s desires nothing more than for them to be involved with and share in your life. And involved in your life is EXACTLY where they usually are, telling you how they think you should plan your wedding and why your idea for your reception is just a bad one. Your family are the ones who are going to drive you crazy for the rest of your life.
I missed a call from my mom a couple of weeks ago, BECAUSE I WAS NAPPING. See, you might not nap that much after giving birth to your first child. You might nap a little after giving birth to your second child. After your third child napping is very important but you don’t always take full advantage of great opportunities to nap. After your fourth child, after you’ve had 4 children with 5 1/2 years, napping is the only thing between your sanity and becoming Mommy Dearest.
So, I am napping. By napping what I mean to say is, I was running back and forth between my room and my boys room, because they have no need for naps. They have all the energy in the world! Napping is for the weak! Finally I feel like I have accomplished some sort of peace. The boys are not going to nap, but I have them in their beds playing quietly with a toy. I will not be falling asleep but I can at least rest my body. The body that just two weeks earlier pushed out an 11 pound 14 oz baby. I think to myself if I can just rest until it’s time to pick up Aidan from school I’ll be able to function a little better this evening. As soon as I settle down in my bed and the house is peaceful, the phone rings. Of course the phone rings. It never stops ringing and that’s OK because there is a small group of people in my life who don’t think its absolutely unheard of that I don’t answer the phone. Even if by some coincidence I didn’t answer the phone the day before because I never heard it ring. So I saw that it was my mom, and decided that I would call her back on my way to pick up Aidan. Like 2 minutes later the phone rang again. This time it was my grandmother. I knew then that mom had called her. Here comes the next great thing about family- The Power of Exaggeration.
I didn’t get the phone when she called. After she left a voice mail I couldn’t rest because I knew she was worrying about me. First I decided to call my mom, who didn’t answer because she was on the phone with my grandmother, who had called my mom back to tell mom that I wasn’t answering her calls either.
My mom told my grandmother that she had been calling for days and I had not answered. Now, I will say that 2 days is more than one, but she led her to believe that the situation was much worse. So my grandmothers voice mail was something like this-
“Brandice! Why are you not answering your mothers phone calls?!? She is worried sick about you! NOW CALL YOUR MOTHER!”
So, I finally got my grandmother on the phone and explained that I was trying to take a nap, but she didn’t care. Answering your families calls is the most important thing as far as they’re concerned. Now, I do have a brother-in-law who never even turns his phone on most of the time, especially the weekend. We have actually had to drive to his house to tell him things before because he wont answer his phone OR check his voicemail. Actually his voicemail box is full so you can’t even leave a message…any way.
Then I called my mom, and she answered the phone this way-
“Well it’s about time!”
I think I said something like, “You have NOT been calling me for days! You’ve called me twice, and that’s it!”
Trying to change the subject she said, “Well what are you doing?”
“TRYING TO TAKE A NAP!”
“Well, call me later, bye.”
I did call her later, but she didn’t answer. I daydreamed about how much fun it would be to call 911 to report her not answering the phone…
So Saturday, I was getting everyone dressed to go run errands. While I was in the bathroom putting on my makeup the phone rang. Ben was running to get it for me, and as soon as he brought it into the bathroom, they hung up. It was my grandmother so I immediately tried calling her back. I couldn’t get through because she was leaving me a voicemail. I checked the voicemail, and in the same irritated voice as the last voicemail she said, “Me and your mom are almost at your house, BYE.”
I love it when they come over, the kids love it when they come over, but this day I tried to get us all dressed and out the door before they got here. I failed. I wont even go into how nice it is to give someone more of a heads up before just popping in to their house.
They came inside and the kids welcomed them with open arms. One of them said, “We just tried calling you BUT YOU DIDN’T ANSWER.” I told them I was busy, and then my grandmother “apologized” for bothering me and said she’d just stop calling me. I tried to explain that she wasn’t bothering me by calling me, it was bothering me that they were yelling at me for not answering the phone. It didn’t matter, she was mad.
Now, I like to think about how much fun it would be to change my outgoing message to-
“Brandice is ignoring you.”
