After my “40 Signs You’re a Mom” list got such an incredible response, it dawned on me that those folks who have kids that are older, don’t have kids yet or don’t want them, have some pretty distinctive signifier of their own. Certain qualities/abilities that give us parents of young ones a chuckle at the mere thought of, like, not finding it triumphant to have an uninterrupted visit to the bathroom.
Here are some of the signs:
1. People still call you by your actual name.
2. You don’t have to look at anyone else’s poop.
3. You don’t sneak vegetables into your recipes like meatloaf, smoothies, brownies — you just eat them.
4. You don’t go to bed wondering how many times you’ll be woken up before morning.
5. Your house is clean.
6. The people you go out with will most likely keep their pants on when you’re in public.
7. You don’t even appreciate the fact that you get to listen to YOUR music whenever you please.
8. Eighty percent of your conversations do not involve schoolwork, milestones, or poop.
9. You can walk across your home without the fear of stepping on a Lego.
10. You get to curse freely and loudly so that it feels cathartic. (Words like SUGAR and FUDGE, no matter how loudly you say them, don’t do the trick, but why would you know that?)
11. You don’t make all your plans around other people’s nap, sleep, school, or sports schedules.
12. You don’t have hand sanitizer in every purse, glove-compartment, or junk drawer.
13. You can go to the bathroom uninterrupted and it doesn’t feel triumphant at all.
14. If your clothes get a stain on them and YOU were the culprit.
15. You can stay out past midnight on a weekend without excessive yawning and possibly falling asleep while doing a shot.
16. You can still do shots. (Notice the plural.)
17. You don’t have to arrange weeks in advance to go out on a Saturday night.
18. When you sing happy birthday, you don’t say cha cha cha between every line.
19. You can watch TV shows when they actually air.
20. You have no clue what this month’s happy meal toy is.
21. Your stuff (i.e. phone, iPad, jewelry, high heels, sunglasses … ) is exactly where you left it.
22. You read books with lettering smaller than 24pts.
23. Toys, dolls, and games don’t eerily start talking or beeping at 4 a.m., making you wonder if they’re alive and if you should go turn them off while carrying a whiffle ball bat, light saber, or fake pirate’s sword.
24. You don’t even have the above items handy.
25. You can sit down through an entire meal.
26. Your car is cute, zippy, or sexy … it doesn’t smell like curdled milk … and there aren’t 1,000 loose Cheerios, Goldfish, Polly Pockets, or Bey Blades rolling back and forth when you stop at a light.
27. You rarely sound like your mother.
28. You probably don’t know or recall every sound that every animal makes and there’s no urgency to learn. (PS: a donkey goes bray, did you know that?)
29. You can’t remember the last time you had a chicken nugget.
30. You don’t know what it’s like to be so head over heels in love and totally obsessed with someone under 10 — and not being on the “Do Not Trick or Treat” list!
JOIN JENNY AT LOOKING AT LIFE’S LITTLE IRONIES ON FACEBOOK and PINTEREST
Related Posts:
35 Reasons Moms Are Late
MORE PARENTING HUMOR WITH JENNY FROM THE BLOG: 20 MOMISMS TRANSLATED — WHAT THEY REALLY MEAN
Spill, I know you can think of many more signs, so let’s hear ‘em …
The post 30 Signs You Are NOT a Parent of a Young Child appeared first on The Suburban Jungle .
