Jealous ? heck yeah..

                 
                           Jealousy is a horrible emotion. It is mentioned in the 10 commandments as "not to covet thy neighbor's wife" , it is one of the 7 Deadly Sins and quite frankly, it just isn't NICE. I have succumbed to this emotion many times in my life, and every time I was jealous of things that were beyond my control.
                            In my childhood I was jealous of all my friends who had siblings because I was an only child. There was nothing I could do to change that situation, my parents only wanted one child.So the jealousy was a wasted emotion. As I got a little older I was jealous of the kids who could excel in math with their eyes closed, and never have to study in school. I always had to "apply myself" , damn those kids who could skate right on through. I made it through school fine though , and learned a lot of study skills along the way, so really nothing to be jealous about. As I got even older I was jealous of those women who never had to exercise to stay thin. This is unfathomable to me, if I didnt exercise I would be on an episode of  Springer because they would have to break a wall to get me out of my house. So I would see these thin women, some of which are my friends, and say "so, where do you work out?" Their answer of "nowhere" would leave me green with envy. This is no longer a jealousy issue for me because I workout to live longer and keep my heart in shape as I have a family history riddled with just about every disease known to man.I have given up on abs of steel, I am purely looking for longevity.
                             This is the point in my blog where most of you are probably like," what is your point Krista?" Well I have a new jealousy now. It involves parents of children who do everything perfect. I blame Facebook for this. It reminds me that my child has not received his early acceptance to Harvard, or hit 3 home runs in one game, or has a 5.0 GPA. I have 3 children and currently none of them are doing any of these things. In fact the older one has a D in his honors math class , the middle one talks back to me ad nauseum, and the little one is never allowed to go to specials on Friday but instead goes to "social skills" and writes me a letter explaining his bad behavior for the week. This is my reality, people! So, when I peruse Facebook and see nothing but shining reports of children, I get a little twinge of the green eyed monster. However , the years of being jealous of things beyond my control have taught me that maybe something good will come out of all this...maybe Zach will learn to reach out to others for help and figure out a way to boost his grade so that is teaching him there is more than one way to learn.Maybe Mikey will learn to not talk to his neighbor in class or make fart sounds with his armpit in the middle of reading time by experiencing the shame of "social skills"class, even if as he says"all my friends go there anyway".Maybe Sophie will learn to hold her tongue and walk away before digging herself a deeper hole, thus teaching self control. (stop laughing at this:))
                  I am glad that when I was growing up there was no social media for my mother to read and realize that quite possibly I was socially stunted or never going to amount to anything because that would have made her think she's a bad mother and be jealous of those around her , and she was not and she had no reason to be.Just like me...hopefully...