If my Facebook newsfeed is to be trusted, then today was the universal “First Day of School” everywhere in the United States.
I cite this as a fact because of the number of obligatory front-step photos posted by my friends of their children. Don’t get me wrong, they were cute. But at a certain point, cute and cliché are not mutually exclusive.
[cli·ché: noun: overused and betraying a lack of original thought]
So I found it refreshing to see one parent who – instead of posting the expected photo of siblings heading off to school – posted this gem:
OK. That parent was my sister. And trust me, she knows her way around a shutter, so I know she was going for “deliberately irreverent” with these shots.
Which is why she is the winner of the First Annual Pithypants Parenting Award.
Boo-yah!
And the runner-up is my friend Sara, who – as the mother of two boys – tweeted this yesterday:
This sentence from an article about identity theft in our local rag amuses me to no end: “For instance, if you pay for Girl Scout cookies with a check and the child’s brother gets a hold of it and gets the numbers, he can use them to make automatic, monthly purchases for porn, or whatever he wants…” Really? From Girl Scout cookies to porn?
[Side note: who can even FIND their checkbook? Please tell me the Girl Scouts accept credit cards. If not, you can’t convince me they aren’t just training those girls to become Toll Booth operators.]
Anyway, THIS is what we need: More parents willing to challenge the norm, to laugh AT children and not simply WITH them. Thanks, Alicia and Sara – for keepin’ it real.
And now you know why I didn’t reproduce. You’re welcome.
pithypants 
Awww shucks! I’ve never won anything before. Especially for parenting. 🙂
Technically you still haven’t.
Ah, first day of school & just when we’d gotten the last kid in our neighborhood off to college (or a couple as seniors in high school), didn’t a family with 2 young boys move in across the street. Yesterday I thought we had a fox screaming bloody murder out front – if you’ve ever heard a pissed off fox you know the sound I’m talking about. I thought that until the ‘fox’ starting yelling “I’m NOT GOING!!!!”. Guess it wasn’t the fox & I guess the new neighbor didn’t bother getting a picture of that happy first day.
Did the kid sound something like this?
How in the world did you find that one? But nooo, I can’t say it sounded like that because I would have gotten up & started dancing instead of hiding in the closet with a pillow over my head.
It sounded just like this except instead of 11 seconds, it went on for 22 & 1/2 minutes with a few “I’m not going’s” thrown in every now & then.
Wow! That’s almost as good as the bleating goats that scream like humans! Who knew foxes could sound like this? It makes me love them that much more!
I was sitting on the back porch one day reading & one had come up behind me & let loose with one of those screeches. I think I went straight up about 3′ in the air. We’ve got a lot of foxes here & my old cat who used to be an outdoor guy was always beefing with them.
Can anyone find MY checkbook? I sure can’t and I have some bills to pay. (OH, I should explain: I actually still write checks for bills. But not for Girl Scout cookies. Or porn.)
Well done, Sithypants! (I did a thing there.)
Don’t go giving Alicia ideas. She’ll start her own blog and it will crush mine. Because her humor is slightly more warped.