Suck It Up

Kara, this post is for you.  I haven't thought about that phrase in a very long time.  That may be hard for you to believe since you can remember our good ol' college days.  Nevertheless, it's true.  Thanks for reminding me of it in your comment on my last post.  Which, yes, was a rather long time ago.

So why didn't "suck it up" make it into our family rules?  Given how fond I was of saying it, it probably should have.  But our family rules were really created by Shaggy.  I just went along with them.  I figured that if our kids followed them, that would be a good thing.

I would probably only have one rule.  No whining.  EVERYTHING is more manageable without whining.  And if you think about it, not whining is really very closely related to sucking it up.  They could be siblings, in fact.  "Don't whine" is just the sibling that's usually more presentable--doesn't come across quite so harsh.

But the truth of the matter is that I just stopped using the phrase.  I never said it to Shaggy.  And somehow it just didn't seem all that appropriate to use when my girls were little.  Not very representative of maternal comfort, really.  I probably could say it to my kids these days, although one would screech, one would burst into tears, one would huff and storm off, and one would tilt her head and ask, "huh?"  It would be quite appropriate for me to say to baby B, but since she spends so very much of her time already sucking it up (milk, that is), it's just not necessary.

But perhaps the real truth of it all is that I have grown too fond of complaining.  Because if I go around telling everyone else to suck it up, they're bound to say the same to me.  And NOTHING ruins a good pity party like an unsympathetic audience.

So for now, at least, suck it up will not make it into the family rules.  Although Shaggy did approve it for use as rule #47.  Just don't ask me what the other 43 rules are, I haven't any idea.  Which is why it's probably a good thing to just stick with 3.