I
remember once having a pretty lengthy conversation about how much we
loved cheese, but it was more because we were hungry. We started asking
each other outrageous questions like, “If you could make a deal that
you never could eat cheese again, but you would then be able to fly,
would you?” Seriously, who would make that deal? Like, nobody – but
that’s the kind of thing Larry and I talk about.
So you
can understand my fascination with this couple at Trader Joe’s. Larry
and I had lots of conversations about them. Asian Pears just seems like
a very particular and much more sophisticated thing to talk about than
cheese. I mean, we would have flown by those pears at breakneck speed
and thrown them into our cart. No discussion.
It made me
wonder if we’re missing out on something. Don’t things like this make
you speculate about how different other people’s lives are? Are they
happier? Are their kids more intelligent? I see couples on weekend
mornings who’ve obviously been out with their baby joggers, sipping
their lattes, the Times in hand, and I think, “Huh, are we the only
ones who wave our little ones away on weekend mornings, muttering from
under our pillows about cartoons and directing them to the special
Saturday cereal?”
I guess it comes down to perspective –
appreciating who I am and what I value. Being able to say to myself,
“We’re a couple who sleeps in and gives our kids sugary cereal on
Saturdays.” And, I suppose, accepting that Larry and I are the type of
couple who talks about the couple who talks about Asian Pears … and
being okay with that. Which I most certainly am.
Suzanne Broughton is OC Family’s lead mom blogger. Read her blog on ocfamily.com.
I do the same thing... but I do think there's a very fine line between wondering what other couples are doing, and benchmarking yourselves against others. As you point out, we only know what they let us see in public. Sure, they may appear to be motivated and engaged on Saturday morning, but it could be they were barely paying attenion on Saturday night AND the kids haven't bathed in a week.
My variation of this game is, well, voyeurism... I love nighttime walks when you can see into the front windows of those homes where the curtains aren't drawn. What are they DOING in there, and how does it differ from what's going on in my own house right now?
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