Growning up

When you are a kid things look easy. You trot through life looking at all the "crazy adults" around you and think that you'll never be that way when you grow up. What you fail to realize is that the reason they all seem crazy is because there are so many things being pushed on them.

Specifically, family.

Don't get me wrong, family is wonderful. I love mine. But I also understand why most people binge drink around the holidays.

Recently some things transpired in our family that were unpleasant. My mother and I had a few chats about the situation to sort it out for the two of us, I said zilch to my grandparents because they prefer to live in the lets sweep it under the rug dept. and I vented to a friend that I knew wouldn't judge me for it. Then, the strangest thing happened. I called my aunt, a bystander in the drama like myself, to get her take on things and we really agreed about a lot. A surprise to say the least.

That's when it hit me. All the crazy adults in the world are that way because some one made them like that. I've decided there are a few categories:

1. Mad hatters - this variety is actually the certifiable. People that have a valid case for institutionalization and the need for extensive therapy.

2. Pawns- people who look crazy to outsiders because they are being used, thrown under the bus, tormented, shamed, etc. by a third party.

3. Judas'- these are the scary ones! These people create pawns. This can be done unwittingly but the ones who do so intentionally are a mess.

4. Hot messes- people who think they are crazy but are actually quite normal. Whatever normal is.

5. Judy's- my least favorite, because they are the most disingenuous of them all. These judgmental whack jobs sit up on their glass high horses making commentary on others when their closets have more than a few skeletons.


I think the point I'm trying to make is that when you look at your family it's easy to see a someone as crazy, but do you ever ask what kind of crazy? Are they acting that way of their own volition or is someone or something forcing them to appear as an unhinged nut?

As an adult you have to take responsibility for your own actions but sometime, and this is rare, you just can't reign it all in. Before you Judy someone be sure they are the root of the problem.