I have decided that I need to take my standard dissociative tactics (lifting heavy weights, embroidering, obsessively organizing) to a whole new level and I've started to renovate our partially renovated basement. By myself. By hand. I'm gonna take that anxiety coal and turn it into a diamond or I'm gonna die trying.
I joined a community choir last year and let me tell you the science is real with making music like this in a group. We spend 1-2 minutes reflecting on the BS that is “real life” outside the music room and then we sing music that lifts us up and also lets us cry a bit. A small group of us sang holiday music at the nursing home across the street and it felt GOOD. Funny thing, a bunch of us all recently discovered that about of our group are fellow mental health therapists. The rest are also in various helping fields including politics, retired lawyers, and many teachers. It’s for sure healing for the healers - and others. There are about 60 of us when we all show up! Among my other activities and hobbies, this is the most restorative thing I do for myself (besides prioritizing leafy green veggies!)
That's truly lovely. I also learned last year singing is good for calming nerves. I had an event last year that I was really nervous about attending and following that was a concert I was playing guitar/singing in. I realized that practicing singing the song I was soloing in wasn't just good for rehearsing, it really helped settle/focus me before my first thing.
Most inconvenient place my kid has throw up: my mouth!
She was 2.5, sitting on my lap koala style with her head on my chest because she didn't feel good. Then she sat up to say, "My tummy hur--" and barfed right in my face and into my partially open mouth. I will never forget it! Thankfully I was too shocked to even lose my shit/act totally grossed out. My now 10-year-old brought it up recently...I think it's her earliest memory lol
(Also this reminds me of the classic Nora Ephron quote: "Kids remember two things: when you weren't there, and when they threw up.")
My husband is probably more proud of the time we pulled over ***right*** in time for my kid to throw up a King Cone onto the curb than the time he [whatever sports thingie win play.]
I need a cry valve. IDK if it's my antidepressants or wiring but I don't cry when I should, only at weird times like when thinking about what a great song Laura Branigan's "Gloria" is
She's from my area! Such a good song. I'm an easy cryer but I can tell I need a release valve more because it's been coming out unexpectedly. Time to start heading back to the gym or something, too.
Last month my 2-year-old had a stomach bug. After a puke, we got cleaned up and calmed down and sat down on the couch wrapped up in a blanket. So cozy that the cat joined us. And then my daughter puked ON the cat.
The cat shook it off, sprinkling puke everywhere, and then ran away. I scooped all of the blanket and the daughter up to the bathtub. When I returned to clean up, the dog was eating the puke that the cat had shaken off. Very gross, but also it’s so nice of him to help clean!
I play in an adult community band, and at our beginning-of-the-year meeting a few weeks ago, we did a silent disco. You wear bluetooth headphones tuned into the software, and you can switch between three different playlists, each of which lights your headphones up with a different color so you know what everyone else is listening to. And it was incredible, just so cathartic to dance for an hour with friends, in a church in the suburbs without worrying about noise complaints. Plus anyone who didn't want to dance could easily just hang out and eat cookies and chat without screaming at each other!
My latest coping mechanism is carrying potatoes about everything at the local food shelf, highly recommend, exercise, community, work that matters, great stuff. Also sometimes the donations are really funny.
Worst barf location was definitely the barf on the IKEA bed tent thingy, nothing like having to completely disassemble something in tension the size of a bed so you can get it into the wash.
I like community food service stuff (food depository truck unloading, assembly line food prep for a hungry child nonprofit) bc it is just so “Do A → B for set amount of time.” No strategy, just do it til it’s done.
OMG. I can't believe I forgot about this. (Actually, I can. I try to forget this incident with every cell in my body). My kid projectile vomited on my best friend's baby. That was not great.
Babies are extremely washable. It could’ve been so much worse. I mean, I understand that it felt terrible at the time but seriously the baby is fine and so is your kid, right?
I remember in high school, a girl ran down the hallway trying to make it to the bathroom BUT instead puked inside some unfortunate soul’s locker when she couldn’t make it. THAT was an inconvenient place. Also, another puke story: my old minivan had ac vents on the floor. My toddler got very car sick into them which meant that the puke smell lingered for months in the ac vents.
I have also caught vomit in my hands, but I’m sad it wasn’t in a more interesting locale. I wasn’t that put out—hands are easier to wash than many other things.
It’s a tie. My baby projectile-vomited between the two seats in front of us on an airplane once, hitting two unsuspecting passengers. And my cat puked in the car, into the back seat heating vents. Cat puke is way less gross than human puke, but it was a real cleaning challenge.
oh my god! How did the passengers handle it?? I had an incident last year where my kid got out of the car and dinged the car door next to us and I was trying to yell at him while the lady in the car next to me had words for me about the dinging and I was like I will apologize to you and make it right but first I have to finish yelling at my kid.
I threw up once into a car speaker. That was rough.
I have decided that I need to take my standard dissociative tactics (lifting heavy weights, embroidering, obsessively organizing) to a whole new level and I've started to renovate our partially renovated basement. By myself. By hand. I'm gonna take that anxiety coal and turn it into a diamond or I'm gonna die trying.
Wow I love this. Would love to know how it goes!
I joined a community choir last year and let me tell you the science is real with making music like this in a group. We spend 1-2 minutes reflecting on the BS that is “real life” outside the music room and then we sing music that lifts us up and also lets us cry a bit. A small group of us sang holiday music at the nursing home across the street and it felt GOOD. Funny thing, a bunch of us all recently discovered that about of our group are fellow mental health therapists. The rest are also in various helping fields including politics, retired lawyers, and many teachers. It’s for sure healing for the healers - and others. There are about 60 of us when we all show up! Among my other activities and hobbies, this is the most restorative thing I do for myself (besides prioritizing leafy green veggies!)
That's truly lovely. I also learned last year singing is good for calming nerves. I had an event last year that I was really nervous about attending and following that was a concert I was playing guitar/singing in. I realized that practicing singing the song I was soloing in wasn't just good for rehearsing, it really helped settle/focus me before my first thing.
This sounds amazing.
Most inconvenient place my kid has throw up: my mouth!
She was 2.5, sitting on my lap koala style with her head on my chest because she didn't feel good. Then she sat up to say, "My tummy hur--" and barfed right in my face and into my partially open mouth. I will never forget it! Thankfully I was too shocked to even lose my shit/act totally grossed out. My now 10-year-old brought it up recently...I think it's her earliest memory lol
(Also this reminds me of the classic Nora Ephron quote: "Kids remember two things: when you weren't there, and when they threw up.")
My husband is probably more proud of the time we pulled over ***right*** in time for my kid to throw up a King Cone onto the curb than the time he [whatever sports thingie win play.]
Kid projectile vomited on brand new curtains I had hung the day before. Truly humbling to cry, worry, and clean at the same time.
projectile vomiting is one of those things you really have to see to believe.
my husband will never let my kid forget that one he (the kid) threw up into my husband's mouth.
I might have just gagged a little.
Crying, is that a good strategy? Also lately - shoveling snow
I do sorta enjoy shoveling.
I need a cry valve. IDK if it's my antidepressants or wiring but I don't cry when I should, only at weird times like when thinking about what a great song Laura Branigan's "Gloria" is
She's from my area! Such a good song. I'm an easy cryer but I can tell I need a release valve more because it's been coming out unexpectedly. Time to start heading back to the gym or something, too.
And sometimes multitasking by doing both at the same time!
Literally me trying to deal with the two feet of snow we got while being plowed in and with an early appointment the following day. lol. #relatable
Solidarity: that was me this morning, but for school drop off.
Yes!! Terrible. It stopped snowing at like 2am and I had to start shoveling at 6am to get the appointment. Hopefully tomorrow will be better!
nooooo. Omg. I'm so sorry!
Last month my 2-year-old had a stomach bug. After a puke, we got cleaned up and calmed down and sat down on the couch wrapped up in a blanket. So cozy that the cat joined us. And then my daughter puked ON the cat.
The cat shook it off, sprinkling puke everywhere, and then ran away. I scooped all of the blanket and the daughter up to the bathtub. When I returned to clean up, the dog was eating the puke that the cat had shaken off. Very gross, but also it’s so nice of him to help clean!
SCREEAAMMMM!!! I have heard "threw up on the cat" stories and "dog shook the puke off" stories but not this entire circle of life situation.
My dog ftr loves to eat up his own puke. Which is both gross but also an elegant solution.
Noooo! But also, I totally appreciate that kind of dog grossness.
I play in an adult community band, and at our beginning-of-the-year meeting a few weeks ago, we did a silent disco. You wear bluetooth headphones tuned into the software, and you can switch between three different playlists, each of which lights your headphones up with a different color so you know what everyone else is listening to. And it was incredible, just so cathartic to dance for an hour with friends, in a church in the suburbs without worrying about noise complaints. Plus anyone who didn't want to dance could easily just hang out and eat cookies and chat without screaming at each other!
that’s so great!
BTW I love that you do an adult community band.
tbh “community band” is probably the best answer to what I’m doing to try to hang on to sanity, just in general
My latest coping mechanism is carrying potatoes about everything at the local food shelf, highly recommend, exercise, community, work that matters, great stuff. Also sometimes the donations are really funny.
Worst barf location was definitely the barf on the IKEA bed tent thingy, nothing like having to completely disassemble something in tension the size of a bed so you can get it into the wash.
I like community food service stuff (food depository truck unloading, assembly line food prep for a hungry child nonprofit) bc it is just so “Do A → B for set amount of time.” No strategy, just do it til it’s done.
For the puke bracket (Ralph madness?) The car seat. It’s always the car seat.
All of these vomit stories in the comments are making me forget about the news for a minute so cheers to that!
happy to help lol
OMG. I can't believe I forgot about this. (Actually, I can. I try to forget this incident with every cell in my body). My kid projectile vomited on my best friend's baby. That was not great.
I think that sounds like a power move!
Babies are extremely washable. It could’ve been so much worse. I mean, I understand that it felt terrible at the time but seriously the baby is fine and so is your kid, right?
they is a good point. babies are like sponges in this way.
We were still co-sleeping and my son was about 1-1/2. I woke up when he threw up all over my face hair and pillow. That pillow was never the same.
as someone whose pillows are VERY important to me this is a real tragedy. And the most compelling reason not to co sleep (JK)
I remember in high school, a girl ran down the hallway trying to make it to the bathroom BUT instead puked inside some unfortunate soul’s locker when she couldn’t make it. THAT was an inconvenient place. Also, another puke story: my old minivan had ac vents on the floor. My toddler got very car sick into them which meant that the puke smell lingered for months in the ac vents.
oh noooo!! The puker must have wanted to die.
You need a toothpick to really clean out those speakers. Like at what point do you just get a whole new car/life.
I caught a handful of vomit in my hands in the back of a van in Jamaica. so fun.
I have also caught vomit in my hands, but I’m sad it wasn’t in a more interesting locale. I wasn’t that put out—hands are easier to wash than many other things.
“hands” and “carseat” were def the two most nominated locations I received.
But you caught it at least!! 🏆 what a tropical memory
hahaha tropical indeed.
Least convenient barf location for one of my kids = down the wall his bed was against.
It’s a tie. My baby projectile-vomited between the two seats in front of us on an airplane once, hitting two unsuspecting passengers. And my cat puked in the car, into the back seat heating vents. Cat puke is way less gross than human puke, but it was a real cleaning challenge.
oh my god! How did the passengers handle it?? I had an incident last year where my kid got out of the car and dinged the car door next to us and I was trying to yell at him while the lady in the car next to me had words for me about the dinging and I was like I will apologize to you and make it right but first I have to finish yelling at my kid.
I threw up once into a car speaker. That was rough.
They were traveling to our hometown to participate in a CrossFit competition. So maybe they appreciated the protein?
no pain, no gain