The Fun Mom

I love the show "Modern Family" on ABC.  One of my most favorite episodes aired right before our November trip.  It was Manny's birthday and the whole family was coming together to celebrate at a local restaurant.  The show to me was hilarious and I enjoyed it all 3 times I saw it.  I don't normally watch the same episode over and over again, but it seemed like every time I turned around, another family member of mine was catching up on recorded shows on the DVR.

Which reminds me of something similar to the show "Sex and the City". I never watched that show.  Ever.  But the one episode I saw at a friend's house (because they faithfully watched it each week), was "Plus One".  Then get this, years ago, Jeff and I went to NYC for a weekend trip and went to visit the "Museum of Television and Radio".  We had gotten tickets for some kind of exhibit and arrived early.  We ducked into the theatre showing a "Sex and the City" marathon and you guessed it, they were showing the same exact episode, "Plus One."  And, another time I was at a different friend's house who was watching a rerun of a "Sex and the City" espisode and the same exact "Plus One" came on.  OMG!  I am sure that "Sex and the City" made other shows besides this one, but you wouldn't know it by me.

Whoa, please forgive my tangent. I just had this memory pop into my head and felt the need to share. I mean, what are the odds for a show I never saw, that I would see the same exact episode 3 times!?!? 

Anyway, back to Modern Family, which I do love and will watch each week.  Claire, Phil and the family are about to leave their house and head to the restaurant.  Words are exchanged between Claire and Phil and a bet is placed on who can get to the restaurant first based on their favorite route to get there.  During the drive Claire comes to the realization that she is not the fun parent, Phil is.  All the crazy, zany ideas come from Phil, not Claire. 

This got me thinking.  I want to be the fun parent!  I want to surprise the kids and do something out of character for once.  I feel like for weeks we were getting into a boring routine of picking Ian up from school, heading home, having a snack and then making sure Ian did his homework, have me make dinner and then get the kids ready for bed.  Not a whole lot of fun.  And looking back years from now, are the kids going to think I was the fun parent?  Probably not.  It was bumming me out.

So I went for it.  One afternoon, before our big trip, Sam and I picked Ian up from school.  I told Ian we had a stop to make on the way home.  It was to Cold Stone Creamery for ice cream.  Now that was fun and unexpected, right?  Ian got very excited when he realized where we were going.  As we were getting out of the car Ian came clean and said to me, "Is it okay if I have ice cream again since we had an ice cream party in class today?"  WHAT!?!?!!  Who knew that the kids were having an ice cream party at school?  And since Ian's kindergarten is all of 3 hours long, it was probably within the last hour.  Oh my!

I couldn't go back on my word now.  The fun mom was out and was not going back!  "Sure Ian.  You can have ice cream twice today."  Because that is what the fun parent would say.