Fuddy Duddy

I’m participating in #ReverbBroads11, a month of blog prompts. Today’s prompt is: How did you become more of a grown-up this year? Or did you pull a Peter Pan and stubbornly remain childlike?

When I saw today’s prompt, my first thought on this was .. yikes, the last thing I need to do is become MORE grown up!  For the last eighteen years I have been relentlessly responsible, adaptable, patient, prudent, altruistic, and an all around self-sacrificing.  No matter what I was doing, I would look at it closely through the lens of the needs of family,  .. never through the lens of what I needed for myself.   Somewhere along the line I became a first-class Fuddy Duddy.

This past year I worked hard on becoming LESS Grown-Up.  I’ve been looking for new ways to enjoy life that are not necessarily first and foremost about my family.   I’ve accepted all invitations, sought out new friendships, taken some risk, and tried new things.   

I spent this past weekend on a mother-daughter double date to Universal Studios to see the Harry Potter attractions at Universal.  It was a party of four ..  my daughter Jenna and her best friend Halina, as well as me and Halina’s mom.  In the past I would have avoided something like this because of any one of a long list of reasons I came up with in my head .. it cost too much, its unfair to her brothers, I’d miss my husband, I don’t want to share a hotel room, etc etc etc.  

How glad I am that I did what I wanted to do and carved out this weekend to focus on the best aspects of being a mom .. having fun together!  We explored Harry Potter’s world and cast magic spells with wands.  We rode some amazing roller coasters that pump you full of adrenaline and made my thirteen year old daughter impressed I was still cool enough to ride them over and over.  (Take a virtual ride on The Hulk and The Rip Ride Rocket) We ordered dessert and then stayed up late watching Harry Potter movies.  All in all, we acted like kids.

I guess I associate being grown up with the “R” word .. you know, Responsibility.   Suffocating, boring, responsibility.   Always, always, always remember to have fun.  Nobody likes a Fuddy Duddy.