Just Relax

Some phrases become part of family life without us ever deciding they should.
Ours is simple.
“Just Relax.”

It’s said with good intentions. Sometimes it helps. Sometimes it absolutely doesn’t. And this is one of those times.

Our family motto is “Just Relax”. It is by far the greatest used phrase in our house. I say it to my husband. He says it to me. My husband says it to his daughter. I say it to my daughter. My daughter says it to me. Ironically I don’t very often say it to my son because I know those words won’t mean anything to him. I do however do things with him that I know relax him therefore giving him his own version of the family motto.

Just Relax.

And it would be really lovely if we could take the advice and actually “Just Relax”. But life just never seems to be simple. Take this last weekend for example…my son was at his dad’s this weekend – this was my only chance to Just Relax before Christmas and I wanted to use it wisely. However life had other ideas. I had worked really hard throughout the week (that’s for my work colleagues benefit) and was off work on the Friday. On the Friday night was my work Christmas night out  – nothing spectacular just a few drinks in a local pub but I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to go. For a variety of reasons I felt like I just wanted to stay in and literally “Just Relax” but that also seems boring as its Christmas and this could be my one and only night out over Christmas and I do like the people I work with (this is the truth, not just for my work colleagues benefit) and so I toed and froed between what to do. My husband also had his work Christmas meal for the same night so he gave me a talking to and persuaded me to get some gladrags on, go to his meal with him, then we would leave that early and go meet my work friends and then we could Just Relax all weekend. So that seemed like a plan. I got myself ready and as I was getting ready I started to feel good. My husband was right – it was the right decision to go out and enjoy myself. I got my gladrags on and we got a taxi to where the meal was. And we sat down at the table, I got my glass of wine and had one sip and thought to myself.

Just Relax.

And then my husband’s phone rang. It was my daughter. That meant she had tried to call me but I hadn’t seen it. So I answered the phone. Well she was in absolute hysterics. And I mean hysterics. My heart skipped a beat and I ran out of the restaurant to a quiet spot where I could hear her. Through her tears I could not understand her at all and I could feel my panic rising. What on earth had happened. Her friend, who was at home with her, eventually came on the phone and he told me the guinea pig was dying.  I could feel the tears come but I knew I was in a very busy restaurant.

Just Relax.

What would I do here. My daughter was inconsolable. And part of me was very annoyed that I had decided to come. Another part of me was very annoyed that I would now have to go home. So I rang my mam and asked her to go round the house and help my daughter. That would be quicker than me getting a taxi home from my current location. I knew I would have to go home. I stood in the doorway of the restaurant to collect myself.

Just Relax.

I went back to the table and when trying to tell my husband what happened I started to cry. In front of all his work colleagues at the table. How embarrassing and when I explained it was because our guinea pig had died I felt even more embarrassed. After a bit of a debate about what to do we decided to get a taxi home. Needless to say I couldn’t leave my daughter alone in the state she was in. When we were all at home together on this extremely rainy Friday night we went out in to the garden…..in our gladrags no less, dug a grave and buried the guinea pig in a Nike shoebox coffin. My daughter was so upset. I was so upset. And then of course we sat at our dining table and had a couple of ports to toast Heidi the guinea pig who had survived 18 months without her mate (Did your eyes pop out?).

Needless to say I didn’t enjoy my Friday night.
Needless to say I didn’t get out on my work Christmas do.
Needless to say my gladrags were ruined by trudging through the mud in the garden in torrential rain.
Needless to say I did not Just Relax.

And that, in a nutshell, is our family motto in action. Sometimes “Just Relax” works. Sometimes it doesn’t. But at least we try…even if it ends with mud, tears, and a Nike shoebox.