WHAT WOULD MARY POPPINS DO?

Generally in my life I have found that any problem I have may be solved by simply asking myself one of three questions: 1. Is anybody looking? 2. Will I regret this later? and 3. Can I eat it?

No, no, that's not it. Let's start this over.

Generally in my life I have found that any problem I have may be solved by simply asking myself one of three questions. Allow me to elaborate.

Let's say I am having relationship troubles of some kind. I simply ask myself, "What would Meg Ryan do?" Usually, what Meg Ryan would do is terribly cute, requires the furrowing of one's brows, and involves either a. "Flying To Seattle," b. "Slapping Him At A Wedding," or c. "Going To The Mattresses."

See? Helpful.

Here's another example. Imagine per chance that your heroine (me) has just accomplished something tragically disastrous and/or is fraught with embarrassment, and showing one's face in public again is imminent. I simply ask myself, "What would Anne Shirley do?" I find that, typically, Anne Shirley would wallow in her misfortune in a grand fashion, and then by and by she would pick herself up by her bootstraps, face her fears head on, and in the process, courageously make an even bigger fool of herself as soon as the opportunity allowed. Delightful!

(Unsurprisingly, I get to ask myself what Anne Shirley would do an awful lot, and I wonder why that is?)

My last example is this: Say I am faced with a parenting quandary that is so overly daunting, so terribly difficult, that I have already called my mother, consulted my mom's group, and productively eaten everything carbohydrate-based in my pantry, and still no answer is presenting itself. What then? This is when I ask myself, "What would Mary Poppins do?"

Mary Poppins is my parenting ideal. She is quick, she is firm, she is exacting but forgiving, she accepts precisely no nonsense and says bizarre things like "Well-begun is half done." The children in her charge simply adore her.

I found during my time as a baby sitter (and as favorite aunt) that kids don't need a lot of B.S. They want to know where they stand with you and they don't like to be treated like babies. Furthermore, they do well when their imaginations and fantasies are indulged and yet they must know their place and how to behave politely. Sure sure, we can all pop in and out of chalk paintings all we like, but people who get their feet wet must learn to take their medicine.

What would Mary Poppins would do?

Whatever she darn well pleased.

This post was also posted on Babble, 

cause sometimes your brain stops working and you just have to do stuff like that.