Wildly Inappropriate

Picture this. We are at the doctors office, a typical Pediatrician's exam room, various animals on the wall, a single 'parent' chair, an examination table and of course impending doom. I know that any minute the door will open and a sweet faced demon will walk in with her tray of torture devices, more commonly known as shots. I know this is coming, my sweet faced boys fortunately do not. At this point they are blissfully unaware as they play with my phone and the paper robes in which they are currently adorned. They currently feel as if they have won this battle unscathed and will be collecting their booty of stickers as they walk out the door any minute now....
Then it happens, the nurse walks through the door with a smile on her face and a very recognizable tray in her hand. Their faces pale, the smiles fade and the panicked eyes shoot daggers at me as they say, "Who is getting a shot?" "It is him, isn't it?" As him starts furiously shaking his head NO! I calmly say, "both of you will be getting a shot today, but remember these shots are for your own good." However, this last part is lost in wailing that is currently pouring out from my oldest, my youngest is still silent as he pinches himself trying to awake from the nightmare.
Most Moms, I imagine, start to feel sympathetic for their children and maybe even start crying at the prospect of forcing their children to endure such unpleasantries.  What does this Mom do? I start laughing...It starts as a slight grin, with the wailing, and then turns to a bold face laugh as the TOTAL drama of the moment erupts. Judging by the looks on the nurses faces this IS NOT the reaction they were expecting, but this is absolutely what they get from me. As the situation progresses the cries, wails of woe and giggles only get worse.  Now please understand I am not a sadistic Mother that enjoys watching her children cry and get shots. But I am the type of person that laughs at the most inappropriate times. You make me angry, my first reaction is to laugh. You make me sad, laughter, then tears and sometimes they overlap. My kids wailing at the doctors office as if they just found out they were getting a limb amputated....borderline hysteria.
I like to think that I am always looking for the humor in situations and that is why, when I am faced with something like the shots, laughter is my gut reaction. I mean if the nurses weren't laughing behind my back they missed a golden opportunity. At one point I am holding down a 40 pound version of the Hulk while my 7 year old is crawling under the table trying to make a break for it. THIS IS GOOD STUFF PEOPLE, laughter is required!
Laughter is what attracted me to my husband and laughter is what has gotten us through some of our toughest times. Laughter is free and when you are broke it comes in handy! Laughter is what makes the difference between close friends and acquaintances. Can you laugh so hard you pee your pants in front of an acquaintance? Heck no! But if it is a good friend, chances are, you will both have wet pants before the moment passes! Laughter is what gets me through my toughest days at work. The days if I was trying to screw up I couldn't do it right. Like the day I met with a customer who seem more interested in giving me a coke than listening to anything I had to say. After trying repeatedly to get him off the coke and back on task I finally slouched back to my car defeated. Only after checking my lipstick in the mirror did I realize the need for the coke.  The black sesame seeds from my sushi lunch had nestled themselves in every crevice my teeth had to offer. He was probably trying to determine if I had half my lunch in my teeth or the worst case of gingivitis he had ever seen. This is when laughter is the only option. Not just any laughter but the deep down gut laughter that can make any day brighter despite the defeats which threaten to darken it; even if it is at your own expense.
If we can laugh, if we can find the smallest amount humor in the worst of situations we will catch a glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel or for my boys the sticker table as they exit doctors office.

EmJ