The crazy neighbor..../ Thanks mom!

Today I had an A-HA moment....

Growing up in Texas we had a crazy neighbor "This is Martha* from next door"...(she said, EVERY TIME she called to rat us out to our parents )
She was the stuff legends are made of, as far as NUTTY mothers go.

She did some far out things like: vacuuming her daughters hair instead of washing it...(I SWEAR...ask my mom.) Her daughter, who I was friends with at the time, loved her long hair... so when Mrs. "Martha *from Next Door".... ran out of ideas for punishments... she decided every time her daughter was bad, she would cut an inch off of her hair. By the end of the summer, poor little Jenny* with the long beautiful locks, looked like RAMONA the PEST...

But was most shocking , was at how stressed out she would get.... she would just go BONKERS... & would often run into the house crying.... It was not unusual to find her crying about something or other... or trying to find a babysitter for their DOG. (hello?)

Today, after about an hour of trying to get both kids in the car, to get to the hospital.... I realized my car keys were missing.... Where the &%#¤? are my keys?.... and out of my mouth came this WHINNNEEE... & I could feel the tears about to come.... WHERE ARE MY KEYS?
I threatened the kids with an inch of their life to stay put as I ran into the house to try to find the keys..... That is when it hit me....

I have become the "CRAZY NEIGHBOR".... & all of a sudden she didn't seem so crazy anymore...
I had figured out what was wrong with her.... Martha* had 2 kids that were making her NUTS..... & it felt like I solved the great puzzle.... If Ol' Martha* was nutty from having 2 kids... My gosh... my poor mother.... she had FOUR of us... 3 of which were PRETTTTY Bad. (not THAT bad...but bad enough to make a mother lose her mind!)

I get irritated/stressed with all of the normal teasing between my 9 & 3 year old... aside from both of them talking WAY tooo much... they are pretty good kids... and are nowhere NEAR as bad as my sister, brother & I were..... growing up,there were a lot of ruined things...broken antiques..Elvis's Souvenir program my brother colored all of his teeth in..(mom cried about that) & lots of trips to the emergency room with us...

So I would like to take a moment to thank dear DiAnn... for not being the "crazy neighbor lady" & for not packing her bags & running away in the middle of night, to a warm Greek island. (this is my current fantasy) because being in your shoes now... -2 I would totally understand if you had...

*** names have been changed... cause my dad told me to.

Comments

Kelly said…
I would also like to thank DiAnn 'cause there were many times that I was part of things that could have sent her over the edge! So DiAnn, if you are reading this...THANK YOU for being the surrogate mother to me during those challenging (but fun for Tree & me) high school and college years. Love and miss you!!!
Kelly
Unknown said…
Hee hee Kell.... Believe me I have been saving all of the stories that were enough to push ol' DiAnn over the edge!
i laughed so hard when I read that ramona the pest comment! That poor girl! I too had a crazy neighbor...we used to make fun of her but looking back....wow, things are so much clearer and easier to understand now! Bless their hearts. (and yours) Did you find your keys?!?!? :o)
Angie's Spot said…
There's a lot of mom behavior that was previously "unusual" to me that I now completely understand. I just hope my neighborhood kids don't think of me as crazy neighbor Angie. LOL!
My siblings and I LIVED to drive the neighbor lady nuts! We finally succeeded, she locked us up in her house, after several hours my brother escaped through a bedroom window. Remember, this was pre-electronics, the only entertainment we had was a dinky black and white TV. So, what was your excuse?
WheresMyAngels said…
the vacuuming the hair thing! Whoa!
Jill said…
So the million dollar question is.. Did you find your car keys? And where were they?

Vacuuming hair... crazy!
Anonymous said…
We have six children. Only one left at home now. Last night we were watching a home video of the birtday for the oldest one. She had turned 13 and the youngest was a toddler. I was watching the pandemonium and wondering how I ever survived it.

At the time it didn't seem quite as crazy. At least most of the time.

When I see young families now I am glad I am not there. But we managed to survive. Well mostly. And you all will too.
Sydney said…
Sometimes I feel like the crazy neighbor who is always yelling at her kids! I wonder what the neighbors must think of me as I yell at Alex to stop making mudpies in the garden, to stop running toward the street, and just to stop in general!
But then I remember that I'm the youngest person on my block by far, and they all had kids once, so they probably went through this too.
Robin said…
Oooo, you are SO BUSTED!!!! Hahahahahaahahaha!! Love your post though, sorry Jean!! I can totally relate to what your saying. It really is those little things that bring on the tears..at least with me :-)

PS. Thanks for the Mexico ? We have a condo in a small port town that we can't live without. We don't get down here much since we're in Nevada, bummer, so we try and soak it up as much as we can!
Unknown said…
Oops! Sorry Mrs. Gullick. Nice to see that you are still keeping tabs on me! : )
Unknown said…
Kids will do that to you !!!!

I had four of them . My daughter also has four kids and I think she now has a better understanding of me these days :-)

BTW...did you find the keys and where were they?
Kimberly said…
This is too funny! I wonder sometimes how my mother must feel then! If 2 kids makes a person nutty, and 4 kids makes a mom crazy, what does 6 kids make my mom? :) Thanks for stopping by my blog! I love yours...its so pretty!
Rhea said…
Dadgumit, I hate those moments when you realize that someone you thought was so weird or you didn't understand before...you totally get now because you're IN THEIR SHOES. I hate that. I really do. I'd must rather laugh from the sidelines or pity them...it's just not right. Empathizing, darnit. It's tough. :o)

Great post and AHA moment!!
Kelly said…
I think you have your material for tomorrow's Mortifying Monday!!! Be sure to thank Jean ;)!
I think we all have nutty neighbours and we are all the nutty neighbour...if we are really honest about it.
Diane Mandy said…
I dunno. You're neighbor in Texas sounds much crazier than your average mother of two. Then again, I don't have kids, so who am I to judge?
Anonymous said…
Umm...I don't know what is funnier...
The part about Ramona or that you got busted!!!!
Just another hysterical Tressa story to tell everyone!
What is our countdown??

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