Appreciation 101

I'm hooked on the new "reality" show "Wife Swap" on Wednesdays on ABC. It's a typical reality show in that they take so-called average people and place them in unusual situations. In this show, they swap moms between two families for two weeks. The moms are generally polar opposites - for instance, a vegan is switched with a mom that loves to hunt or a neat freak is switched with a slob. It's fascinating to watch in the way that a car accident is watchable. You know it will end badly, hopefully not horribly badly, but you can't keep your eyes off of it. On the other hand, unlike a car accident, the people involved usually come out of having learned something, whether it's appreciating their kids, their mom, their wife, their husband...whatever. In a few cases, you could tell that the husbands wanted the "new" wife to stay a while longer because his "old" wife's shortcomings became painfully obvious. For instance, the woman who slept as late as she wanted and expected breakfast in bed PLUS expected her husband to clean the entire house AND work full-time. You gotta know she's not looking too good after 2 weeks.

So I'm trying to figure out why I'm hooked and I guess it's because I use this show as a way to feel better about myself. In general, I'm usually about mid-way between the two extreme moms. We watch TV, eat junk food, clean a moderate amount, etc. There's not really anything unbelievably interesting about my life. I do not, my husband is happy to know, spend $3,000 a week on clothes. On the other hand, I do clean more often than once a year.

So while my husband and I watch this show (he's hooked too, though he won't admit it), I'll casually ask: "So I wonder what the opposite of me would be? I'm not a total slob or a total neat freak or anything very extreme..." To which he replied: "They'd probably find someone with absolutely no personality." AWWW....wasn't that sweet? He thinks I have a personality - very cool! Does that make up for my violent mood swings or regular bitchiness? Probably not, but it's a start.

See, every gal needs to know they're appreciated, especially if they're a stay-at-home mom. Other than garbage collector, it's gotta be in the top 10 of thankless jobs. So when I watch this show, it's like I feel appreciated because it's suddenly obvious where I'm doing things pretty well. When I know that my house is relatively neat, compared to the sloppy mom, I feel a small sense of accomplishment.

I know, it's petty and self-serving, but hey, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do!