Me: “That reminds me of the Seinfeld episode where…”
Jill: “Oh my god, really, mom?”
Laughing, I replied, “Of course. We do this on purpose so you don’t miss home too much while you’re away at college.”
[We are a family of Seinfeld junkies. We’ve watched every episode at least five times and DVR the reruns.]
Jill: “You know, sometimes I have FOMO thinking about home. But then I get here and it’s like, why did I think I was missing anything?”
Me: “FOMO?”
Jill: “Fear of missing out.”
Gosh, can that girl make me laugh out loud.
Jill is home for the holiday break and as much as it’s fun to have her home, I’m sure we’ll both be ready for her to return to college in January. (You didn’t think I’d be saying that back in August, did you? Neither did I.)
I recently laughed out loud during the movie “Bad Moms” in the scene where Carla is encouraging Amy to attend the PTA President election after the incumbent President messed with Amy’s kid.
Carla: “You are gonna rise up like a small, little white Apollo Creed and you are gonna look at Gwendolyn and you are gonna say, “You can do what you want to me, I don’t care, throw it at me, but you [messed] with my daughter, and now I have to fight you. I will fight you in the playground. I will fight you in the cafeteria. I will even fight you in the parking lot of Trader Joe’s. But I will have justice for my little girl, because I am a [freaking] mom and we protect our young.” So get up off this couch, turn off 12 Years a Slave and let’s body slam this [witch].”
Even though Jill is pseudo-“off on her own,” I will never stop parenting nor will I ever stop fighting for her, even if I do drive her crazy with my Seinfeld references.
Getting your Family Succession Plan in order and keeping it current and organized is one way (and frankly, more productive and legal than Carla’s example in “Bad Moms”) that you fight for your kids everyday.
Even though Jill is afraid she’ll be bored to tears over the next month (and she may be right—we are not the most exciting household), I’ll definitely carve out time for us to spend together doing the things she loves to do.
After all, I want her to have a little FOMO when she returns to college!
Kristen “Found the Cure for FOMO” Marks
