You shouldnt bowl fruit.

by

fruit-bowl

I know it’s not a popular sentiment, but I’m ready for summer to be over.

It isn’t even so much the child-at-home thing either.

MomCamp rocked & even our a/c dying during the first triple digits of the year was an adventure thanks to her attitude.

Ive made poor decisions (when did I think camp which necessitated I send a daily *kosher* lunch was a good idea?), coupled with the fact kids really can’t just frolic free outside all day in Texas (ahh triple digits) and summer has felt a little long.

To both of us.

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This guy wants summer never to end.

The other night, as I pondered lunch for a camp sans-refrigeration and with food restrictions, the Child grabbed our last apple and said:

Mama, there’s a big hole in this one.  Should I throw it out?

And, because I’m ever the patient, loving unflappable mama (wink), I hit the wall.

I’d been to the grocery too many times that week.

I’d thought I’d planned my purchases precisely so we had the right amount of all things to last us until the weekend.

I was tired and hot (see above a/c breaking) and I smacked into the wall of LACK OF GRATITUDE.

Hard.

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I snatched the “hole ridden” fruit from her hand, saw it was, indeed, holed and rotten, and bowled hard it across the room.

I took all my frustration and all my Happy Mom! No Cool Air Is An ADVENTURE! feelings out on the unsuspecting orb and hurled it across the hardwood floor.

The Child looked at me, her jaw dropped, and I see tell she was waiting to find out what the heck would happen next.

And I laughed.

Not quite from the same place as our tea party laughs—but close.

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reenactment. the original apple did not emerge unscathed.

Indeed it took hurling, err, bowling a wormy piece of fruit across the floor to get there but the apple toss served as a release valve of sorts.

I laughed.

The child laughed.

The Doodle was perplexed (not much different from normal).

goldendoodle

After a few moments the Child looked away from the smashed apple and said quite seriously:

Mama, you shouldn’t bowl fruit.

And a mantra was born.

Four words we quickly appropriated as our family phrase of sorts.

Grumpy kids at the park whining and carrying-on to their big person?

We shrug and say:

You shouldn’t bowl fruit.

Crazy driver weaving in and out haphazardly in an effort to beat the traffic?

We look at each other knowingly and say:

You shouldn’t bowl fruit.

No matter the mood, no matter the situation, no matter the heat or lack of a/c the four word phrase never fails to make both of us smile.

You shouldn’t bowl fruit.

And you?

  • Do you have a family mantra/phrase which sounds nonsensical to others?
  • Are you a parent-type who’s also a bit ready for the summer(heat) to end??

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Comments

  1. This is such a cute story. I love that your daughter was the one who came up with it too. Kids really do say the darnest things.

  2. I am awake and tiptoeing around so I do not wake the twins.
    I am done with summer, too LOL

  3. If you were in our house you would only understand about half of what we say.
    We have lots of family shorthand!!
    and I LOL’d at this Carla.

  4. Ha ha! This was a brilliant story Carla, thanks! 🙂

    I know you’re sick of your summer, but could I just have a little of it sent over here to Scotland? Its 10 degrees C here. Should be 20! 😉

  6. Yet again, you have one of the most amazing relationships with your child. My mom and I, I am sure, had some pretty inane things that we used to say–I will have to try to remember them and right them down!

  7. i think i would have chunked it in the wall. You shouldn’t chunk fruit? LOL! But dang, i’ll bring you fans and ice cream for that heat. And yes, mantra’s are key. I need this, it’s good!

  8. “And____(insert name here) in all his/her compassion… sped up!” This would take an entire blog to explain but so loved yours!

  9. I am imagining your laugh, post bowling the apple. 🙂

    I am sure Tim and I have some nonsensical phrases, but for some reason I can’t remember any of them!

    Oh wait…yes. The word “pimple” said in a specific way.

  10. I can relate to the A/C being broken! Ours was working off and on for several weeks and the repair guy had to come out 3 times before we got it working. Fortunately for us it’s not as hot as Texas up here! It can make a person pretty crabby though, when our A/C was out I was not so pleasant to be around

  11. Frankly I despise summer! I hate hot weather and even worse than packing kids lunches, is getting them to wear sunscreen and hats every day!

    Love this story…I probably would have cut out the worm and still packed it in the lunch 😉

  12. That mantra 🙂

    Thanks for sharing this story – we all have those moments! And I love when we’re able to turn them around.

    Mr. Science and I have WAY too many nonsensical phrases 🙂 I like it.

  13. Anytime I get a little “overheated” about something and want to Hulksmash all the things, my husband approaches me very calmly and says “Goooosfrabaaaaaa” (from Anger Management – the movie, not the tv show). I instantly crack a smile and feel the anger diffuse immediately because my husband has a bigger temper than I do and it’s just funny to see him trying to be zen. He knows it’s the best/fastest way to bring my blood pressure back down!

  14. We are not ready for the cold, but we want the extreme heat to end. As for sayings, we call an out-of-sorts feeling “the ookie-pookies” and we “try not to let the ookie-pookies catch up to us.”

  16. My daughter was sitting in Walmart sharing some popcorn with G’pa as her G’ma and I picked up a few items. She looked at him at said “G’pa, it’s a Bongo movie”- indeed it was and still is and we still use the phrase when we see people being sheeple and doing stoopid things like wearing pjs to go shopping. I think she was about 4.

  17. Yes! we have one, “cheap shoes.” Cheap shoes is anything of inferior quality, that lasts or looks like it will last 5 minutes after purchase. I love you bowling with fruit. I bet it felt good!

  18. When my little brother was about 3-4 years old, we were eating lunch at a fast food restaurant. He was in a cranky mood. All of a sudden he burst out crying – my mom was concerned something was actually wrong – “What’s wrong??” “My french fry is upside down!!!!” From that point on, anytime anyone has been in a crabby mood for no particular reason (mostly unexplained tantrums from kids) we all say “his french fry is upside down.” enough said. 😉

  20. I absolutely love this, every word! I love how you threw the fruit, the dogs expression, the laughter, and the family wisdom that will now always be a part of your fabric. When the boys were growing up we were great fans of Winnie the Pooh. And Pooh Bear had a line where he said that “you never could tell about bees.” That became our “line” – our look at each other line. So precious. After our son was killed, I had leather bracelets made for each of us surviving with “you never can tell about bees” engraved on them, in Latin, because it became even more of a family mantra in the Latin. I love your story, it has made me smile and remember the joy that sometimes comes from throwing fruit! Wishing you a peace filled day, thank you again for the wonderful memory.

  26. Love that story.

    I am so so so over summer. I made the mistake of allowing my children to not have a camp this week, thinking we’d do lots of fun stuff. Somehow I forgot that my children NEVER like the same activity and it’s hot so *I* hate being outside. Add in needing to work to catch up from our vacation, needing to spend hours training for a marathon, and needing to be home for contractors to come deal with unplanned issues. Yeah. So.over.summer.

    Thankfully, we had to camp Grandma and Papa soon where it’s cooler out and we can divide the children. Pretty sure I wouldn’t make it to the end of summer otherwise.

  27. LOL I love your new mantra. I think I’m going to have to adopt it! I don’t blame you…at times it’s the little things that set us off. With all that heat it’s no wonder. You shouldn’t bowl fruit…that will be mine now too!

  28. I love the story behind this statement. My family has one where we say, “Shut your mouth, Brenda,” in reference to a movie line. It sounds ridiculous to others, but we know just what it means.

  29. Another great and well-told story! We have so many catch-phrases in our family, some from TV shows, some from movies, and a lot from things the kids said when they were young. My youngest son used to say, “otta, otta,” which means a lot of something. Those little kid phrases are probably my favorites, because it brings back such fond memories of those days. And yet, I know I wouldn’t want to go back, because it was SO MUCH WORK having little ones around. Du and I can almost speak in a kind of short-hand sometimes, using our “catch phrases,” I think I worry about this as much as anything, who will I talk our family short-hand with when he is gone???

  30. I love it! Yes, my family has nonsencical phrases but I also have a secret language with each of my kids. The problem is that my lack of hormones has caused me to forget (we don’t say them everyday) so they say the phrase, which I know is our secret language and I have forgotten what it means, so I nod my head and laugh as if I know exactly what they’re saying. Oh Carla, I feel old. LOL

  31. Yeah, summer has been brutal this year! I’m not complaining though, I save that for the winter because cold paralyzes me; lol

  33. There was an episode of Spongebob Squarepants where Squidward secretly loved Krabby patties but refused to admit so to Spongebob because he had already made a big deal about how awful he thought they were before he actually tried them.When Spongebob found out Squidward not only loved Krabby Patties but was obsessed with them , a smug smile crossed his face and he said “You like Krabby Patties, don’t you Squidward?” When my family doesn’t want to admit to liking something because they think someone will make fun of them, another member of my family will smile and say “You like Krabby Patties, don’t you Squidward?” Then everyone starts laughing letting the person know its ok to like what ever they like.

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