What Partying In Your 30s Looks Like

Age might just be a number, but there still comes a time when you know your days of being considered young are officially behind you. That day might come when you hear kids refer to something you liked when you were younger as “old school.” Or, it might be when you’re filling out forms online and have to move up from the age bracket that includes ages 18-34 to 35-50. (That’s happening for me next month. RIP my youth.) If you don’t consider those indicators of moving from youngish adult to adult-adult, then maybe it’s having sound effects accompanying you when you get up in the mornings.

One of my least favorite parts of getting older is my stomach. I absolutely cannot stomach some of the things I used to have no problem with. For example, pepperoni and chocolate give me heartburn. Just looking at raw cookie dough makes the acid in my stomach start moving upwards. And alcohol? Oh lord. Now, this doesn’t mean that I don’t still partake in any of the things mentioned, but there will be consequences.

Back in my college days, it was a rare thing for me to ever get a hangover. It didn’t matter the amount I drank or what combination I had (I knew some people who would get sick off of mixing beer and hard liquor). I rarely felt bad the next day. But these days? If I have as much as one cocktail, my body usually makes sure I pay for it, whether it’s within the hour or the next morning.

This brings me to partying in your 30s. First of all, people in their 30s don’t often refer to their gatherings as “parties.” We call them “get-togethers” or “cookouts” or just say “we’re hanging out.” Unless it’s for a special event, there usually aren’t parties. And while our get-togethers are still a lot of fun, they often look very different from what parties in our 20s looked like.

In your 20s, you’ll almost always see someone doing a keg stand or shotgunning a beer. And you’ll definitely see someone playing quarters or beer pong.

Fast forward to your 30s, and hello, exciting night of board and card games! Maybe you don’t do something this tame every time you get together, but how often did board games make an appearance during the 20s? Probably never.

At parties in your 20s, it was hard to go more than 10 minutes without hearing someone yell out, “Shots!” The frequency of that word being yelled out decreases big time in your 30s.

The only shots you’re saying “Yes” to every half hour in your 30s are shots of Pepto Bismol.

Did you like staying up until the wee hours of the morning in the club on New Years Eve/Day when you were in your 20s? (Technically, I never did, but I’m putting myself in a club for the purpose of this post.)

Well, this is what New Years Eve may look like in your 30s.

That was our last New Years Eve. Usually we at least do a get-together with friends, but we were having a hard time even holding our heads up at midnight on this one.

And the only drugs you see at parties in your 30s are the kind you find over-the-counter at the pharmacy.

So, I have headache powder, tums, and if you want something strong–Zyrtec.

Isn’t getting older fun?

What’s something you find yourself doing at parties/get-togethers these days that reminds you that you aren’t young anymore? 

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A Dorky Brain

Since I’m still neck-deep in the book stuff and haven’t had time for a normal blog post over the past week, I thought I’d share a doodle I’m including in the book.

(The other doodles have stories or anecdotes. This is just a doodle I used to close out the chapter that has stories about me.)

For a couple of housekeeping type things–

  • I am creating a mailing list. (That’s on the list of things you’re supposed to do when you write a book, so I’m checking that off.) I’ll use it to send out a weekly blog recap and book updates and promotions. This is mostly to avoid cluttering up the blog with that sort of stuff later. You can click this link to subscribe to the mailing list.
  • If you want to help me promote the book once I have a release date, email me at dorkymomdoodles (at) gmail.com.

And that’s that. The awkward self-promotion crap is over for now.

What does your brain look like? 

Just Call Me Super Mom

Have you ever seen those stickers and t-shirts that say, “I’m a teacher, what’s your superpower?” Maybe insert “nurse, mailman, or [whatever else]” for teacher. Well, I might not be a teacher anymore, but I am a mom, and by default, that means I have a number of superpowers. There are things I can do that no one else in my house has the power to do, and while they may not be as glamours as shooting fire from the palm of my hands, these powers are still pretty cool. (I’m being very liberal with my use of the world “cool,” by the way.) As such, I expect my invitation to the Justice League to arrive any day now.

Enhanced Vision

Thanks to my super enhanced vision, I’m able to spot items that are too small to be seen with the naked eye. This comes in very handy around the house, and I often become The Finder of the Things.

Why, yes, I can see through walls.

Step aside, Superman. Your microscopic vision has nothing on mine. The only thing my enhanced vision is unable to detect is socks. As you’ll recall from my last post, they’re basically my kryptonite.

Super Strength

Wonder Woman can throw cars and the such, but can she do the one thing that no one else in my house has the strength to do?

That’s right, I alone have the strength to do things like remove empty toilet paper rolls and replace them with new ones. I’m also the only person strong enough to close a cabinet door. At first glance, you might think that doing such things would be easy, but based on my family’s inability to complete such tasks, I came to realize my own strength. Clearly things like cabinet doors, toilet paper rolls, and clothes — which the people in my house manage to get to the bathroom but can’t actually  put them in the hamper — weigh a ton. I might not look like I have much in the way of muscles, but sometimes looks can be deceiving.

Mind Reading

Have you ever noticed that children can be super vague at times when it comes to telling you what they want or whatever it is that they have a problem with? They sometimes give you the absolute bare minimum in the way of details and expect you to be able to figure it out anyway. Maybe not everyone could figure out what, “I want [incoherent mumbles]” means, but I can, thanks to being able to read minds. I’m basically Charles Xavier with more hair.

I don’t even have to wait for her to finish that question before I say, “No.”

This comes in handy with lying, too. I don’t catch them telling lies often, but I always know when they do.

Mom Sense

You’ve heard of spidey sense, but have you heard of mom sense? It works pretty much the same, only instead of being able to deflect the Green Goblin’s pumpkin bombs, I do things like catch a falling cup of milk and stop the kids from ending up in the ER.

Catching a glass of milk might not be as satisfying as deflecting a bomb, but at least I don’t have a mess to clean up.

So, yeah, I’ve got powers. The only things I’m missing is the ability to fly, turn invisible, and having super stretchy arms. Becoming invisible would be nifty when they’re annoying me and I want a moment of peace and quiet, and that last one would come in extra handy when we’re in the car.

What’s your superpower? 

Book update time: “Don’t Lick That! [Tales of Parenting and Other Madness]” should be out within the next couple of months if everything goes as planned. (Self-published — it will be available on Amazon and other online retailers.) I’m in the final stages now and am trying to figure out the whole marketing thing. One suggestion I read was to form a “street team” (rolls eyes) to help with online promotion. If you’d be interested in doing that (I’ll form a Facebook group), email me at dorkymomdoodles@gmail.com. (I feel awkward as hell about this, but that’s better than other suggestions I read like making a video or podcast.)

Parenting Advice Series: Freaking Socks

Someone told me that I should give parenting advice on my blog. I snickered to myself when she said it, because what the heck do I have to offer people in terms of advice? I’ve been a mom for a decade, and I’m only slightly less clueless than the day I brought the first kid home from the hospital. I’m useless where getting picky eaters to eat goes. I couldn’t tell you how to get the kids out the door so you can get to school on time. And I definitely couldn’t tell you how to deal with tantrums, relatives who think they know how to raise your kids better than you, or how to keep car seats clean.

“Maybe I’ll do that,” I said, because I didn’t want to say, “I’m the last person anyone should come to for parenting advice.”

But then — nine months later (because it takes the same amount of time for me to have a good idea as it does to grow a baby) — I was folding clothes and I had a thought.

Oooh, SOCKS. Maybe I do have a little parenting advice to offer the world.  (Well, if not the world, then new parents, at least.) It only took a moment of rage to figure that out. And then I started thinking about other things along those lines, and boom — I had enough stuff to make a post. Or two. Or three.

Here we go.

In my time as a parent, I’ve learned that you should never buy cute socks for the kids. Cute socks come in different cute designs and colors, and do you know what all of that cuteness means? NEVER HAVING A PAIR OF SOCKS THAT MATCH. I wish you could see my laundry basket right now. It is full of cute socks that are missing their mates. There is even a sock that fit my preemie sized Baby Girl in the basket that is holding out hope that one day I’ll find the other one. (I refuse to throw it away. I’ll take that baby sock to my grave if I have to.)

I don’t have a clue where the damn things go, either. It’s almost like someone is breaking in my house when I’m not home and stealing socks here and there. If you’ve watched Home Alone, then you’ve heard of the Wet Bandits, and now there’s the Sock Bandits. All they take is one sock from each matching pair, because they want to slowly drive you insane.

(If those guys look familiar, it’s because they made an appearance in a post I did where I mentioned using a bug spray of sorts to get rid of religious people showing up unannounced. I guess payback is a bitch.)

I’ve looked in all the drawers, under the couch, in the toy boxes, and I cannot find them. I get missing a few socks, but I have at least 40 socks in that basket.

Are the sock companies in cahoots? Do they rig the socks in a way that makes one of them self-destruct after a certain amount of time, so that you have to keep buying more? Because — aside from the self-destruct component costing more than the sock itself costs to be made — that’s a good explanation.

Or maybe there is a portal to another dimension in my house that only socks can access. There is another world completely filled with socks that don’t match. Or maybe it’s not another dimension at all and is just part of one of the circles of Hell that wasn’t mentioned in Inferno. Dante was all like, “Shit, socks are boring, so I’ma focus on people being ripped apart by dogs.” In a less exciting area, there was a pile of socks that the sinners had to sort through for eternity.

I can understand why he would leave that out, since writing about sock sorting in a poem is kind of lame.

(New thought: a series on the nine circles of hell, parenting style.)

So, take it from me — don’t buy socks with designs or colors or brand logos or anything. Don’t be like me and go, “Ugh, those plain socks are so fugly, I’m gonna get these cute stripey ones where each pair comes in a different color and maybe the moon and stars will align and none of them will get lost.”

Where do you think the socks go?

Honest Bumper Stickers

It never fails that I get behind someone on the road who has one of those proud parent bumper sticker on their car. You know the ones — “Parent of a GREAT Kid!” or “Honor Student at [Made Up School]!” or “My Kid is Awesome and Yours Sucks!”

Maybe that last one is made up.

My car is bumper-sticker free. I do have a Hanson logo sticker on my window, though. My husband wasn’t wild about that, since he drives the car, too. He could remove it if he wanted, but I have one of those machines that lets me make any vinyl decal cutout I want, so it’d be pointless. Being the rolls-her-eyes-at-bumper-stickers hypocrite that I am, I also have a Duke TIP magnet for my son. But hey, at least a) it’s not a bumper sticker, b) it won’t mess up my paint, and c) I can remove it when he does something to piss me off. As we all know, removing a sorta braggy magnet is the ultimate middle finger to a tween.

(For any grandparents reading this, “C” is a joke, so don’t unleash your wrath in a strongly worded text message.)

Looking at those bumper stickers got me thinking — what if parents put honest bumper stickers on their cars? I mean, sure, it’s nice that your kid makes the honor roll, and I know you’re proud of that, but come on — you probably call your kid an asshole more in your head more times in your day than you think, “I’m so proud of my A and B making kiddo that I could pee my pants,” right?

Here are a few honest bumper stickers that are likely better suited to your (or someone’s) kid:

Now that we’ve got the honest kiddo bumper stickers out of the way, here are a few more that reflect #parentlife:

What would your honest bumper sticker say? 

Thank You, Siri

My mother-in-law and I went shopping together recently in an area that I wasn’t familiar with. After we left one location to head to another, I had to get Siri to give me directions, since navigation isn’t either of our strong suits. True to form, Siri started telling me how many feet to go until each turn and so on.

I noticed something after receiving a few directions from Siri — my mother-in-law was quite engaged with her.

And then when Siri gave too many directions about upcoming roads or whatever…

Or something to that effect, and naturally, I about peed my pants laughing. I told my MIL that I wanted to doodle that, since it cracked me up, and then after we chatted about it a bit, I asked her if I could write about some of her other tech funnies. She regularly reads my blog and knows what type of stuff I post, and she agreed. Others probably wouldn’t want their “The struggle is real” situations put out for the world to see, but my MIL is pretty laid back and is always quick to laugh. She once recorded a video singing “Y’all gonna make me lose my minds” and dancing with my kids, so she’s definitely one of those rare people who don’t take themselves too seriously and enjoys the moment.

So, I welcome you to the doodled mini roast (sort of) of my mother-in-law, AKA MawMaw.

(She has been included in one of my past stories. Check out Little Man’s prank if you haven’t read it yet.)

I’m pretty sure that our phone number is on my mother-in-law’s speed dial, and it’s not so much that we’re her favorite people in the world to talk to as it is we’re her go-tos for tech help. We’ve seen her through countless viruses back when she had a desktop computer. Despite installing the best antivirus software known to man and locking down all permissions to make it virtually impossible to mess up her machine, she’d still infect the dang thing, and we’d be called to fix it. I’m not sure exactly what she was looking at or downloading for this to happen, but happened it did.

Same with the tablet, laptop, smartphones, etc. Viruses weren’t so much the issue with these devices, but there were lots of questions about how to install apps, how to delete apps, upload pictures, etc. (Stuff I would expect since it seems like this stuff changes constantly.) Once there was a help request regarding Facebook.

Facebook Problems

Like almost everyone else I know, my MIL is on Facebook. For a while I’d regularly see her post pictures, memes, etc., but then I noticed that she wasn’t posting as often, and I assumed that she got tired of using Facebook for anything more than checking out pictures of her grandkids.

Wrong.

One day I was at my MIL’s house with the kids when she got her phone out and started scrolling through Facebook. At one point, she commented about how no one ever liked or commented on her Facebook statuses. At first, I thought she just meant that people didn’t comment/like things often enough — and I felt guilty for not liking them myself, even though I didn’t see them — but no, she really did mean it never happened.

After pulling up her Facebook page, I saw very quickly why there were no comments or likes.

Yep, her posts were locked, so she was the only one who could see them. I scrolled through for a bit and saw that several months worth of posts were locked. Birthday wishes, photos, posts about the grandkids, memes, updates, etc. All locked, so no likes/activity from family or friends. I could only imagine the frustration that must have been building up! 

Obi Wan Jesus

This one will be new for my mother-in-law, since I never commented on it.

One night when Baby Girl really was more of a baby, I was rocking her to sleep. It was one of those nights where she didn’t fall to sleep easily, so I was there for a while. After she dozed off, I continued rocking (it took her no less than 15 minutes to get into a deep enough sleep to be moved) and turned on my phone. I scrolled through a few statuses when I came across one post from my MIL that almost made me have to restart the rocking routine.

I didn’t even realize it was Obi Wan at first, since I was just scrolling, but then I realized, “Hey, something’s not right there…” I scrolled back up, and there was Obi Wan Kenobi in all of his Jesus glory. It was all I could do not to howl with laughter. My husband noticed my not-so-muted snickering and peered over my shoulder to see what I was laughing at, and he almost lost it, too.

Legal Troubles?

My in-laws got a new car last year, and like many other new cars, it has a shiny infotainment system. It has navigation, satellite radio, apps, etc. One of the apps (or services, I suppose) they have is On-Star. If you aren’t familiar with On-Star, it’s a service that helps with navigation, emergency services, and more. My in-laws regularly used On-Star for directions and stuff, and one day my MIL approached me to ask about the possibility of legal trouble regarding their new car.

After complaining about how well the On-Star service was working, she told me that she was worried they were going to get arrested because my FIL cussed out the virtual adviser. He asked for directions, and it didn’t understand him and it gave him some random answer. After that happened a few times, he let loose a string of curse words.

“Could he go to jail for that?” she asked me.

I can usually keep a straight face with her, but this time I couldn’t. The thought of cussing out On-Star’s version of Siri is was humorous enough, but getting arrested for it? I about pissed my pants.  I assured her that no one was monitoring those interactions (I think) and that no laws had been broken.

I’m sure it won’t be long before Little Man could write his own version of this post for his dad and me!

Do you have any funny tech mishaps to share?

Let The Fun(draisers) Begin

Do you know what school starting back up is synonymous with? Aside from early mornings where everyone bitches, doesn’t eat their breakfast, and then whines about being hungry? And also loses the mate to every single pair of shoes they own?

Fundraisers!

I’m pretty sure they shove the fundraiser forms at kids the second they enter school on their very first day. Forget school handbooks, emergency contact forms, and all that crap — fundraiser forms are priority number one. This means that basically from late August until mid May, anyone with a child is a social pariah. People will go great lengths to avoid being asked if they want to support Little Johnny popcorn or fruit crate fundraiser.

I hate school fundraisers almost as much as I hate zucchini, and that’s saying something. It’s like that song from Annie, It’s A Hard Knock Life, where the little orphans are singing about all the shit Miss Hannigan makes them do, but with adults and selling useless crap instead of cleaning.

It’s the hard-knock life for us
It’s the hard-knock life for us
Always making us sell useless shit
To buy more cheap Chromebooks for your kids
It’s the hard-knock life!

(Excuse me while I go rewrite the disgruntled parents version of Annie.)

When I was a kid, we had one big fundraiser for school where we sold wrapping paper. Apparently at Christmastime, there was a massive shortage of wrapping paper, so it was crucial to sell the same thing you could buy at Walmart at a 300 percent markup. And then there was a fundraiser with the softball team where we sold candy. Candy wasn’t a problem, since most people didn’t cringe when they saw you coming their way with those big boxes of M&Ms. Except for that one lady who yelled at me for trying to kill her because she was diabetic, anyway. (That’s every 10-year-old’s dream — to rid the world of the diabetics. Sigh.)

Things are different now. They sell lots more useless crap now, and depending on which school your kids go to (not the boy’s), the kids who sell the most useless crap are treated like celebrities for a day. One year there was a limo ride to a local pizza place, followed by playing in a bounce house rental. I think that was the same year, at least.

There’s also the “Fun Runs.” Little Man has repeatedly asked what the heck is supposed to be so fun about these Fun Runs, but I’m not really sure.

Maybe an inflatable obstacle course would be lots of fun, but jogging around a track or inside of a gym isn’t anyone’s definition of fun. Some years they do Color Runs, which I have a love-hate relationship with. On one hand, it’s fun to squirt my kid in the face with the colored chalk stuff, but on the other hand, I have to let him ride home in my car. We’ll call that the Sorta Fun Run. (By the way, I was so disappointed at the first Color Run. For whatever reason, I thought we got to throw large paint balls at the children. We did not.)

It is my dream that one day the schools will have fundraisers that the parents will actually enjoy. Instead of being forced to wait tables for a night at a restaurant so the school can keep the tips (whoever the hell came up with this horrible idea for a fundraiser can go straight to hell) or harass coworkers to buy garbage, we need fundraisers that are actually fun. There has to be a way  a person can raise funds while not hating their own existence, right?

Ultimate Dodgeball

There are two ways you can go with this. First, parents vs. other parents. Charge $10 per participant and have fun launching balls at the heads of the other parents you loathe for an hour. Second, parents vs. kids. Same idea, plus you get to unleash some of that pent-up aggression over certain individuals leaving messes all over the house again. Borrow balls from the school, meet in a public space, and it’s all profit.

Drink-A-Thon

Instead of getting people to pledge a buck or whatever for your kid to walk a quarter-mile, how about getting people to pledge money for each glass of wine or beer you drink? Some of the…more seasoned…moms would probably be able to raise the rest of the funds needed to build the new playground in no time at all.

And if you aren’t a drinker, then get people to pledge money for each glass of water or Coke you drink. You’re with other adults, kid-free, having fun, and raising money, so it’s a win-win situation.

Adult Fun Raffle

Some schools have Fundraiser Raffles where they get people and companies to donate all sorts of stuff, you buy a bunch of tickets, and then you put your ticket in the bag for whichever item you want. Some of the items at these raffles are neat, but others just blow. (Why the hell would I want to put my ticket in the $1 oven mitt raffle vs. the beach weekend raffle?)

At the Adult Fun Raffle, there will be no oven mitts, kiddie art classes, or coloring book sets raffled off. Gift cards for the local pub, babysitting vouchers, date night supplies, etc. will all be raffled. Baked goods — but not the kid-friendly kind — will be raffled. You get the idea. We’ll even let Karen raffle off the rest of her Pure Romance stock, and we’ll take her word for it than everything is unused.

See? Fundraisers really can be fun. Or at least not kill-me-now painful.

If you could come up with a fun fundraiser, what would you choose?

Good news on the book front — I finished the rough draft. Anyone who emailed me about being a beta reader for the book can expect an email soon with a PDF file of the book. If anyone would like to be a beta reader and hasn’t already gotten in touch with me, email dorkymomdoodles@gmail.com.

Update

I thought things would slow down when Little Man started school, but not quite. He is in a play and has been practicing three times per week in the evenings, and then all week this week, so that has eaten up a lot of “free” time as far as being home and getting things done goes. Not that I mind, of course, but I am super excited about the plays! This is his first time acting, and it’s been so awesome to watch him progress.

Also…I’ve been working on the book. I finally got bitten by the writing bug that I was hoping to be bitten by over the summer. I finished the first of nine sections on Monday, and then kicked it into a higher gear and am now done with the writing part. (Early mornings and late nights, so I’m running on fumes.) Of course, many stories are repeats (now I’m looking at roughly 35% new content), but the old ones had to be rewritten to a degree to make them tie together with the theme of each section.

Next comes editing existing doodles and creating new ones. Needless to say, things won’t be slowing down much. Not that I’m complaining, though, because I’m glad that the finish line is finally in sight!

After I finish it, I will need a few people to read it and give me their feedback. If anyone wants to do that, shoot me an email at dorkymomdoodles@gmail.com. It’ll be a few weeks or so before I get to that point, since I’m pretty sure I won’t be able to create a hundred or so new doodles overnight, but if there is any interest, just email me.

In case you’re wondering what the structure of the book will look like, I have it in nine chapters, with stuff like The Boy or The Struggle Is Real In Parenthood being the theme of each chapter. Two sections will consist of material that hasn’t been published on this blog before, and another section will be mostly new material. And the other six sections will be around 25% new material.

So…that’s where I’m at. I promise, I’m gonna catch up on the blog stuff one of these days! I always feel like an ass for posting something when I haven’t caught up on reading everyone’s blogs, but here I am anyway.

Now, everyone wish for Little Man to break a leg tomorrow night, since opening night is tomorrow! ❤

Liar, Liar

Recently my friend Lindsay, who blogs at The Sensitive Giraffe, tagged me in a post on Facebook about lying to your kids. She suggested that particular topic would make for good blog material, and she was right.

I know what some of you are thinking — “It’s wrong to lie to your kids! You poopyhead!”

To which I say —

Just kidding. Maybe. Maybe not. You’ll never know.

For the most part, I like to keep it real as a parent. Well, as of around 2017, I have liked to keep it real as a parent. Prior to 2017, I only kept it real for topics that didn’t make me uncomfortable. I mostly didn’t outright lie, but I did a lot of omitting the truth and skirting around issues. (Don’t forget to vote for me in 2020.) Nowadays, if one of my kids wants to know something, I make every effort to tell them straight up, regardless of how much I don’t want to answer the question.

For example, Little Man has asked me this at various times throughout the years:

How was I born?

Before I became a [Sorta] Super Truther, I’d tell him that he appeared . Later I mentioned that babies were sometimes born by C-section, and we happily watched a C-section video, since that is better than mentioning my vajayjay. (He wasn’t born that way, but it was okay if he made the assumption.)

After I became a [Sorta] Super Truther, I told him point blank that he was born by vaginal delivery and came out of my birth canal. And you know what? He didn’t bat an eye. There was nothing to be uncomfortable about at all. (Parenting pro tip: just be super technical with this stuff.)

So, Liar, Liar. I’m a fairly truthful mom these days about the things that matter. Baby making, puberty, the chances of seeing more than a couple inches of snow during a South Carolina winter…I’m truthful.

There are, of course, a few things I’m not at all truthful about, and that’s mostly a matter of convenience. Saying something like, “Lindt chocolate is for adults only,” might make me lose a few mom points when they discover the truth, but it’s pretty damn convenient.

Here are a few other situations that I may have fudged the truth in:

As I’ve established on this blog in an earlier post, my kids definitely know that when the bra comes off, their mom ain’t doing anything. And part of that is because — at some point — I led them to believe that I require a bra to function outside of the house.

Anytime I say “Maybe” when they ask for something or to do something, it’s pretty much a lie. The above pie chart proves this.

That blasted Steve Jobs.

This also works with their Gogurt, Goldfish, and graham cracker treats. For the record, this is by no means a regular occurrence, but it has happened. (After they look at you like you’re the parent version of Judas, you’d lie, too.)

Amazon doesn’t have it. Target doesn’t have it. The whole Internet has run out of it.

I had actually forgotten about that lie until Baby Girl asked me if Caillou was still sick one day. I blanked at first, and then she reminded me that I had told her Caillou was sick and couldn’t be on TV. He eventually got better. Unfortunately.

I don’t care if you are the most honest parent in the world and never lie to your kids, there’s no way you can judge me for the last one.

What’s one of your parenting lies?

Open House Bingo

Remember the Parenting Drinking Game? The one where we got to take drinks for things like the kids tattling or fighting?

Well, now there’s Open House Bingo! Simply keep this bingo card on hand and mark off squares for when certain events happen at Open House Night. At the end of the evening, you get rewarded depending on which bingo pattern you end up with. This game is guaranteed to make dealing with crowds, dodging sign up sheets to volunteer for doing all the things, and ignoring passive aggressive comments slightly less painful.

(Assuming you don’t have superhero vision, you can open this image in a new tab or zoom in to read the small words.)

(In case it isn’t obvious…you’ve got any five in a row, five diagonally, an X, four corners, and full card. For the love of God, if you get the last one, get the hell out of there.)

Based on past Open Houses, how do you think you’d do? Is there anything you’d add to one of these squares?