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Serious Mummy, Funny Daddy
Posted: 25 January 2010
My oh so bright five year old cheerfully said to me last night as I was tucking her in to bed, ‘Mummies are serious aren’t they and Daddies are funny.’ Stunned, I temporarily stopped mid tuck, quite unsure of how to respond. What shocked me the most was that it was said as a statement of fact – she may as well have said, ‘Grass is green isn’t it Mummy and the sky is blue.’ But she wasn’t, she wasn’t doing that. With her unique powers of five year old observation (observing her very funny Father and myself – not funny) she had come to the conclusion that just as dogs bark and cats meow, Daddies are made hilarious and Mummies aren’t.
I really think this is unfair. OK,I know I can get a little tense about the state of the house (which since having three children is in a permanent state of disrepair) and I try to be strict about boring things like cleaning teeth and going to bed at a reasonable hour, eating fruit and veg from time to time and making sure you go to the toilet before you go to bed but – serious ? I know that such considerations don’t feature that highly on Daddy’s horizon but that must just be because he’s funny and I’m not. Perhaps funny people don’t need to clean their teeth or tidy their rooms? Funny people don’t need to bother about emptying their bladder before they go to sleep so they won’t wet the bed, and funny people don’t need to eat up all their tea even though they’ve just spent the best part of an hour making it – they’re just too busy being funny I suppose.
I’m not bitter – he is funny. I’m just a little sad – because I am too. I am silly, I can be funny, I make people laugh and I think (at least I thought) I was a pretty fun gal to have around. I could sit here right now and tell you about the time we had a head standing competition, when I taught them how to Irish dance, when I tickled them so hard they laughed until they cried and I could go on but I won’t. Instead I will take it on the chin and take this opportunity to see the world through the eyes of one bright, perceptive and very funny little girl. If she sees me as serious, then hell, perhaps its about time I chucked out the rule book....?
Sarah x