I grew up being the Daria to my sister’s Quinn. If you somehow missed out on MTV’s Daria series in the late 90’s than let me review by saying that they were sisters, Daria was a pessimistic smarty pants and Quinn was the happy cheerleader.
Now I wouldn’t go so far as to call myself a “smarty pants” but if there was any way to knock someone a couple pegs off their “happy” I was pleased to be the one to do it.
The other night when Pat was a little late getting home from work, I said something like, “Gosh where is your father??” and Maile responded with, “Maybe he got in a car crash and died.” Completely monotone.
For some parents this might be alarming, but it just made me brim with happiness. She’s just like me!! Because it’s exactly what I was thinking and would never say out loud to my children. All this time I thought my dark humor was a coping method I had adopted to deal with my Dad’s death, but here I have a tragedy free daughter with the same Daria voice. It’s that dry, sometimes dark humor that just makes me giggle. I don’t know why and it’s probably entirely inappropriate. That’s probably why.
And just as Quinn was my sister, so is Quinn also Maile’s sister. I can see Maile’s tendency to knock her sister down a couple pegs every now and again. I know this is something siblings just do to one another. They spend SO much time in each others faces, sometimes they can’t help but be like, “OMG just shut up with that smile, you’re obnoxious!” but I know my role is to foster both of their little personalities. I get a little protective when my Daria wants to knock my Quinn down and I step in when I need to.
The other day the girls were working on those luminary jack-o-lanterns and Laina chose to make hers with green tissue paper instead of orange.
“Green? Are you making a zombie? Cause you know that’s what zombies look like right?”
And then I was all, “Are you sure you want green Laina?”
And she was all, “Yes I want to make a green one.”
And Maile was all, “*cough*zombie*cough*”
Just when I was going to chime in about creativity and how we all create differently, Laina looked happily at her handiwork and said, “Mrs. A says everything doesn’t have to be perfect.”
And it was like…well then. If Mrs. A. says it’s so then it is so!
I am thrilled to have that confidence booster reinforced at school. I love Daria, but we need Quinns in this world too! Thank you Mrs. A.!