Dear Moms, You STILL Are NOT Boring

It’s that time again for a gentle reminder that you are not boring! I gave you some tips in July of 2015 and encouraged you to have your “fabulous me” arsenal of “I am not boring.” dialogue ready for every event or ice breaker situation you find yourself in. This is your reality check reminder that you STILL are NOT boring, and here are some new tips to keep that arsenal locked and loaded.

Pep Talk Moment before we begin: You aren’t just a mom. You have more life and depth to you than you think. You have valid thoughts and opinions. You are worth your own time. You have quirks, talents, and funny flaws. You can dig deep without having to overthink things in order to say/share more about yourself and how pretty amazing you are. Get with the program, stop wallowing and being so down on yourself and using the age old excuse of “time”. You make time for what’s important, and you are important.

The last time we talked about this subject, you were given a step by step guide on how to form 3 sentences to share about yourself that weren’t the run of the mill answers that could potentially make you sound boring when you really aren’t. This time I want for us to look at resources that can help us conversationally because there is more to you than you think, and you are not boring!

Tip 1: Podcasts

They are free, they are downloadable on your phone, and they are quick to listen to during any part of your day. My favorite podcasts are Happier Podcast by Gretchen Rubin, The Mortified Podcast, I’m Just Talking Here – Ollie Wisdom Podcast, and The Moth Podcast. (Disclaimer: The Mortified and Moth podcasts are not kid friendly due to language sometimes.) Listening to a podcast helps with talking about something else when you are with a group of people who maybe don’t have little kids, or any kids for that matter, or maybe with other women who aren’t moms.

I was talking to a friend recently, and she texted me a quick vent of commentary on how she realized that her conversation skills need to be broadened and she genuinely wanted to be better and do better at that. She said that she was with a group of people that weren’t “kid talk/mom talk” type of folks and that she knew she had more depth to her than what she was portraying but she ended up shrinking into the background because she felt like her voice didn’t fit into the conversation. Listen to a podcast 3 times a week, it can take anywhere between 5 minutes of your time to an hour of your time. Turn it on when you are rocking the baby, turn it on when you are driving as long as it’s kid friendly, turn it on instead of the TV, turn it on when you are working out, turn it on when you are loading and unloading the dishwasher, turn it on during your commute to work after the kids are dropped off, turn it on right before you go to bed and just listen.

One of my best friends is a mom of two kids, ages 6 and 3. She listens to a podcast after she drops her kids off at school, and then heads to work. The podcast she was listening to was talking about a tree in Austin, TX called the Treaty Oak. We had her and her husband over for dinner and she ended up telling us “You guys, I was listening to this podcast about a tree and the story was amazing …” she proceeded to tell us the cliff notes version of the story, and it was super interesting to hear about and we were all engaged in the conversation. Fast forward to a month or so, she and I were able to visit that darn tree she heard about from that podcast and now she has even more dialogue to go along with her “fabulous me” arsenal.

Tip 2: Flipboard

Pick one or two topics that you will commit to reading about that have nothing to do with being a mom or that is kid related. I personally love the app Flipboard. It lets me customize the topics that I want to “flip” through and that show up in my Flipboard feed without me having to search for anything. It’s very user friendly and it’s like an adult version of Pinterest but with really quick topic related articles to read. It is pretty much your own personalized magazine that you can flip through and it’s a valuable resource to impact your mind with something else other than mom/kid things. I love that it’s quick, easy, and doesn’t bombard me with more “stuff” to keep up with. It constantly generates new material, and once you are ready to “flip” through it, it’s there and new every single time you open the app. Keep this one app non mom/kid related and it’s your constant “fabulous me” arsenal weapon that is always ready to go.

Tip 3: Your quirks

Your quirks are actually pretty darn funny and can make for some really laughable and funny conversation. We recently had a OKCMB contributor blogger dinner together and one of our bloggers cannot handle or stand the feel, smell, or sight of saran wrap. We have another blogger who absolutely does not like pumpkin spice lattes, believe me she got some “gasps” about that announcement, but it made for some great laughter. Own up to your quirks, make them funny, put pride aside and share them. You might be surprised about a fellow in sync person who shares your same annoyance of people who use the word “vaca” instead of “vacay” to shorten the word vacation. Because “vaca” is a cow in Spanish, and it’s not “vaca” it’s “vacay”, let’s just get that straight once and for all. Please for the love of shortening words, it’s VACAY! Guilty … I have a huge pet peeve with that, it’s one of my quirks! It genuinely annoys me beyond belief when I see “vaca” posted anywhere! Share your quirks, keep it funny.

So, tell us your favorite podcasts if you are already subscribed to some that aren’t mom/kid related. Share your quirks with us, we probably need a good laugh and you may find your sister soul mate that can’t stand saran wrap either! Also, it’ll give us all a chance to leave our quirk confessions in a place that we can all use them as conversation pieces for the next time we want to tell a story and then find out other people’s quirks in that conversation, boom that’s Tip #4. We can’t wait for you to share!