Friday, November 9, 2007

A Normal Family? What is That?


My daughter once asked me if we were a normal family. Normal? Hummm. Good question. I didn't have an answer for her, but the question got me thinking about what makes a family normal or not normal. I started thinking about my own family and the things that make us, well, us. I figured that once I put some thought into it, I could decide if we were normal or not and give her an answer.

We have a lot of pets which include a whole mess of fish, a Russian Tortoise, two cats, and about 60 crickets. In the past, we have had an entire gaggle of hamsters, two stick bugs, a dog, a frog, and a moth. The crickets gross me out, but I don't mind them as long as my son catches them when they escape. But, I do draw the line at snakes and spiders as both scare the heck out of me. My daughter once wrote a letter to Santa and asked for a spider, so ever since then, I have had to put my foot down.

Sometimes, we take our tortoise outside for a walk. I imagine it must be a pretty funny sight to see the three of us walking down the street with our tortoise. My son is working on making her a leash, that ought to be a sight.

Every Tuesday we have spaghetti night. My son hates spaghetti sauce so he puts applesauce on it. I know, gross, but he loves it. I keep hoping he will outgrow this in a few years. My daughter, on the other hand, loves ketchup. She loves it so much, she even dips her bananas and strawberries in it. Ewww.

My daughter loves to put her clothes on her cat. The cat, well, she doesn't love it so much. If she could shoot darts out of her eyes at me for allowing my daughter to parade her around the place in a dress, I would be a dead ten times over. Sometimes the kids give their cats baths and there is nothing funnier than a wet cat shaking off its little paws all the while glaring at you. You just can't help but laugh when they are all skinny, ticked off, and shaking off. They always end up just fine and smelling so much better, so, glare all ya want kitties.

We sometimes wake up and decide to drive to the snow; or go for a hike; or go to the movies; or visit with friends; or or or...whatever we want! We almost always have a good time as we are all goofballs and laugh and joke around. Sometimes we turn up the music and dance around with the lights off and the disco ball spinning; or snuggle on the couch and watch a movie; or climb a tree; or look at the stars with a telescope. Sometimes we have those Saturdays where we want to do absolutely nothing, and we sit home and do just that, a do-nothing day, my personal favorite.

Getting back to wondering what makes a normal family, I don't know how to answer that. I think as long as the family has fun together, can laugh together, and enjoys being together, then that would be my definition of what makes a normal family. If I am wrong, then I don't want us to be normal.
(c)2007 Cindy Breninger. All Rights Reserved.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am normal. I swear. I am. No really. Normal as the day is long. I am. I swear.
(you convinced yet?)

Please stop in on my blog, I have an award for you.
Much respect~d

Kitty said...

Hi Cindy - thanks for dropping by my blog.

I've just been having a good read of your place, as I sip my morning mug of tea. Your household sounds as mad as my household, though we have less animals! Our family isn't 'normal' ... I know it, the kids know it, and I'm sure everyone else knows it. I try not to mind!

Keep up the great blogging. :-)

Mike said...

Thanks for stopping by my place.

There's no such thing as a "normal" family and I, for one, am very thankful for that. We're all just a "little different" and that is the beauty of it all.

Tricia said...

Your daughter sounds like me when I was little. I LOVED to dress my cat. and wash her and I would even paint her nails! Lawd knows what I was thinking hehehe.
In our household, we don't really try to define normal... we are probably a far cry from it. But we all love each other very much and has such good times, thats all that matters.

Moooooog35 said...

We took the kids to the beach this past Sunday. We live in New England. It was 40 degrees.

However, Hurrican Noelle had just blown by, so we were treated to some 12 to 15 foot waves.

..and surfers..

I had no idea New England surfers sucked so badly. Each one was able to stay upright for approximately 2 seconds..tops.

So, it would have been nice to sit with the kids and watch the surfers...but everytime we tried it ended up like:

"Ok..he's up...watch him OHH!..man!"

"Oooh..ooh..he's getting up! He's...YOW!"

So, needless to say, I probably don't have any budding future surfers in my family...as it all looks too painful from what they've seen thus far.

The Sports Mama said...

Thanks for stopping by my blog! :) And for commenting! I love it when people do that!

Once, when my oldest son was pondering this same question, it occured to him that "normal" is only what you think it is. He told me, "Mom, this is our life. Its what's normal for US. So yeah, we're a normal family. *slight pause* Everyone else is whacked."

*sigh* Gotta love teenagers! :)

LB said...

Hi Cindy

I just read a post in a blogger help group that you left on Oct 23rd, wanting to know about a 5 for 1 link exchange offer. I'm the blogger making the offer (www.vptv.blogspot.com). Did you ever get your questions answered?

Your response should be redirected to my email inbox, but in case not: beontvresource@yahoo.com

Anonymous said...

Awesome blog!

Keep up the good work!

Big love,
Billy!

Anonymous said...

I used to worry that my family might not be normal. Now I think there is no such thing as a normal family, or even a normal person. Someone once told me: Everyone is normal ... until you get to know them.

Have a great day

Anonymous said...

Sorry didn't mean to be anonymous in that last comment! Here's my username ...

Cindy Breninger said...

Haha, I was so excited thinking I had an anonymous secret admirer! hehe :)
Cindy

Anonymous said...

Dear Cindy,

I'm sure you have many thousands of admirers already, so one more or less won't make a difference ;)

But I'm happy to be one of the many.

Love from Ess47

Michelle Hix said...

Cindy

The more I read, the more your family sounds a lot like mine. Normal? Probably not. Fun? Definitely!