Oct 4, 2007

Sorry Mom!

Finally it has been proved: there is a worldwide conspiracy out there, barely known by the general public...

Composed by women of almost all ages, the International Sisterhood of Moms has its own code of conduct and their own book of examples and phrases to use with the kids that probably has been used for more than 300 years now.

I suspected that this Sisterhood existed since I was little. I remember hearing the mother of my best friends occasionally using the SAME words with them that mine was using with me.

Then I was in my late 20's I found out that some of the WEIRD things that my mother used to tell me when I was a kid were not just my mom weird ideas but some kind of extended knowledge. I discovered that friends that I have made at school and at work have gone through the same or very similar arguments with their mothers.

I remember getting together with some of my friends and finding out that our moms (that never met in their lives) have been telling us the exactly same things when we were kids.. things that in our little heads then didn't make any sense and that almost 30 years later still don't make sense to me.

But my very BIG surprise was when i found out that this "conspiracy of the evil mothers" was not limited to my country... it was INTERNATIONAL! One day, talking with Glenn (my husband, born in NYC but with Puerto Rican roots) I find out that his mother used the exactly same argument with him about his underwear, exaaactly the same my mother used with me. Now, remember, his family is from Puerto Rico, with origins in Spain, while I was born and raised in Buenos Aires with a mix of almost everything in my family (Italian, German, Jewish) EXCEPT Spaniard.

So how come both our mothers would reinforce the importance of clean underwear with the same (pathetic and weird) argument? We both have to hear "what if we have an accident and therefore our underwear was exposed to strangers and they found out it wasn't impeccable?" . Yeah. That was the argument. I remember thinking that if a car ever run over me I would probably have much more than my underwear in bad shape and that I surely hope that people would be more concerned about ME than about my not perfect underwear. Still, that was my mother weird argument and Glenn's mother weird argument what clearly show that they all learned from some occult book that is passed on to you the moment you become a mother.

If MORE proof was needed, this video says it all. Anita Renfroe mixed in 2 minutes almost everything that ALL moms use at some point or another... and of course times have changed but seems that instead of "do not read at the table!" the mantra now is "Do not text at the table!". Clearly nothing has changed SO much. The book is still valid.

Have a laugh, enjoy this video and tell me that you never heard ANY of these sentences, no matter where you were raised. I will ask for proof and 2 witnesses!




I am now in a quest to find the complete lyrics. I know she goes too fast for non English speakers *and for some English speakers too* so I will look for the lyrics and will publish them here. (update: here they are)

Sorry Mom, but seems that the International Sisterhood is not a secret anymore!

1 comment:

Zed said...

Unbelievable!!! I thought the "Underwear excuse" was invented by my mom! I thought she had also copyrighted it a long time ago :-) And i guess u r absolutely right... I'm Greek blooded, born and raised down under (Australia) and it seems to make no difference in that! But i have to be honest here... there was one time when I recalled her excuse. I had a small accident with my motorcycle. An ambulance took me to the hospital, and believe me, the nurses had a big laughing time, finding out i was wearing a teddy bear boxer underwear. You just can't imagine how embarrassing that was for me :-)