I'm a fairly serious person. Ask anyone who's known me for any length of time and they will agree. I'm pretty sure I've never been considered silly since I was maybe 6 years old. I tend to have a more melancholy personality. I wouldn't be considered easy-going although I wouldn't be the most uptight person either.
My childhood was serious. When I was born my maternal grandmother was battling cancer. She died when I was 2. So my mom's life during that time was serious. How could it not be when you mother is dying, right?
Then when I was 10 my paternal grandfather was battling colon cancer. Again. More seriousness. Right after he lost his life to cancer my mother was diagnosed with Chron's disease. For the next 3 + years she dealt with this disease. I remember her being in the hospital more than she was at home for those 3 years. To this day she still battles side effects caused from the illness and treatments for it.
In junior high and high school a lot of my friends thought I was sad a lot. Maybe I was. I don't really remember. Teenage years are filled so much anxiety as it is.
Still I've been told I look sad quite often. In reality I'm not sad. I may not be constantly smiling, but that doesn't mean I'm sad. I'm usually at a pretty even keel I guess you could say. I don't have high highs or low lows.
I'm a pretty intuitive person. I was as a child also so I picked up on a lot of this seriousness that blanketed my young life. Sometime during all this I think I forgot how to be silly and to just simply laugh. Maybe subconsciously I was just waiting on the next serious thing to happen.
As I've grown I have learned to "lighten up". I'm still pretty serious though. I'm not saying I never laugh or smile. I do. Thanks to the wonderful friendships I have now as an adult I laugh a lot. It is still an aspect of my personality I am working on, though.
Also thanks to my Squirt I laugh and smile a lot more now. A lot of times it's more laughing at something he does or says, but I'm always careful about laughing in front of him. I don't want him to think I'm laughing at him.
But something that happened a few weeks ago reminded me I do need to laugh more. Especially with my Squirt.
In the midst of running errands after school I was also trying to take photos for my Week in the Life project. Squirt decided he wanted to take a photo of his dad's former office building. I was trying to explain how that was not really a part of our "Week in the Life" since his dad no longer worked there.
To this he replies "But it reminds me of back in the day." I tell him, "Squirt, you sound like an old man saying 'back in the day'."
And his giggle box started doing back flips. Even at 10 he still has the best laugh. Of course I couldn't help but laugh with him. It was just too funny.
It brought me to the realization that I don't laugh with him enough. I take my job as a parent pretty seriously. But it reminded me that I also need to have fun and laugh with my Squirt. I don't want him to grow up and think I was never silly enough or relaxed enough to have fun and laugh with him.
So what about you? Is your personality more serious or light-hearted? Do you find yourself not laughing enough with your child?
