I love reading Kristen over at We Are THAT Family because in so many ways, we are THAT family too. (You know the ones). And if you don't, I'll tell you which ones. My husband knew were were those ones and he married me anyway. I think secretly he liked the crazyness and chaos from my family that added so much spice and pepper to his conservative, orderly life. (He's reading this shaking his head and laughing at me right now but he knows deep down I'm right.) Because this is how we do things.
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When my oldest son was just a few months old, I was hanging out with my parents and they suggested that I leave him with them for the night. As I think back, I'm thinking, "Sweet!" But at the time, of course, I wasn't quite sure about it; he'd never been away from us yet and we weren't really prepared for in mentally and he was our first child and you freak out over everything with your first child. But it was kind of on the fly, so we eventually agreed.
The only problem was that no one in my my family was a carseat expert. So no one in my family knew how to put the carseat into my parents' car properly.
So we all piled into the car. We put the carseat in the best way we could configure, my sister and I sat in the back on either side of the carseat (I remember holding onto it for dear life, just in case we did it wrong) and my parents were in the front. We didn't know, really, where we were going but we thought firestations did this type of thing so we went to the firehouse.
When we pulled up, there was no real door on the outside, so we all sat in the car in the parking lot/slash/makeshift driveway (basically the firestation's front yard), debating whether to send my dad up to find a door, and we were all talking and it got louder and we all began shouting, and finally voted my dad into going up -- when all of a sudden my mom just leaned over my dad and started wildly honking the horn.
Well that's just great.
Now firemen began spilling out of the firehouse. Literally. The garage door went up and they came out of there. They came out from around the side and the back. There were at least 10 of them.
I wanted to die.
Because of course, how do you even start from that? They're thinking there's some sort of an emergency. But in my mom's mind, she's thinking, "See? That's all you had to do!" However, we're all ashamed of ourselves and all mortified and dying inside because there must've been a better way but of course no one was coming up with anything because we were all just arguing over what that better way was, which was going to end up being sending my dad up because he always gets the vote to do something we all don't want to. It's so unfair living with three women. I really don't know how he did it.
So these fine gentlemen have now surrounded our car, and I'm stammering because they're all so good looking! I feel like I'm in high school again and my mom has embarrassed me, so my mom just starts to speak up and tells them we need help putting the carseat in.
Of course we discover we had it in completely wrong all the way to the firehouse (I could just DIE KNOWING THIS, thank GOD nothing happened) and the men fixed it and we were on our way.
It would comfort me a little if I knew this was a one-shot thing, but outings with my family often turn into screaming in the car, usually in the drive-through when we are all telling my dad what we want at the same time and the lady in the speaker is talking and he can't hear her OR us, all he hears is white noise at this point -- children screaming "I want popcorn chicken!" "I want a Queen Amidalla Cup!" from the back and my mom ordering in his ear next to him.
And then when finally he's had it up to here and he yells into the speaker box, "FORGET IT! WE'RE COMING IN!"
Which of course silences the entire car because now we have to show our shamed faces inside the restaurant.
Nothing in my family is easy. My husband has been the guy in the drive-through with us all ordering in his ear. He knows.
Yes. We are THAT family. I know the ones.
How bout you? Head on over to We Are THAT Family to hear more great family embarrassments!
