Monday, August 08, 2011

different perspectives

The leader from my Warcraft raid wrote a description of the members of our team. I was surprised to see myself described as "the maternal figure of the team. She is quiet, for the most part, good natured, willing to help and encourage people, and someone you can go to with issues and will offer a listening ear." I'm much more accustomed to hearing myself described as "bitchy" than "quiet and good-natured." In my litigator days, I was often called "a pitbull."

Later I asked eleven year-old Iris uber Alles, "How would you describe me?"

She thought. "I'd say, 'Interested in cats, cooks a lot, plays a lot of Warcraft, good at sewing...'"

I cut her off. "That describes my interests, but not me! My personality. Like, you could say 'bitchy' or 'sweet.' It's okay to say something that's not too nice; I'm asking for it! Or something nice, like 'caring and shy.'" We took a moment to laugh about the time her little sister described the two of them as "caring and shy" and I, their hellbound mother, laughed so hard I nearly choked.

Iris thought again. "I'd say, 'Weird but surprisingly awesome.'"

"Well, the leader of my raid group described me as 'the maternal figure of the group.'"

Iris laughed uproariously. "You're the mother of the group?" Laughing harder and harder, she choked out, "YOU'RE the mother of the group? You? You? You're the MOTHER?"

My own child does not view me as a maternal figure.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lookin' good, Mom!

Debbie

hughman said...

i was so shocked to see the new template i thought i'd come to the wrong blog! so my words for you today are "surprising" and "necessary".

the Drunken Housewife said...

I've been meaning to change the template for ages. This is a placeholder (but knowing me, it will probably be here a year). What I would really like is a nice retro theme with cocktails. I have actually asked graphic artists/web designers I know in real life to do me a theme and offered to make a deal for one, and to a woman, they have all flaked on me. Sigh.

NonymousGoatsePants said...

THE ORANGE!!!!! IT HURTS!!!!

the Drunken Housewife said...

Ha, now I want to make it brighter.

Tracy said...

Oh man. I actively fear how my raid leader would describe me. Probably "moody" or "not as funny as she thinks she is." My husband, on the other hand, fits your raid leader's maternal figure description, when he's not being tormented for having once, accidentally, on his first time in BoT ever, pulled the slate dragon.

Also, I dig the orange.

the Drunken Housewife said...

Tracy, what is your team working on? The nerf hit us at a bad time: we had just hit our stride and gotten to the point where we could progress at a good pace. We had 9 out of 12 down at the nerf (so you can see we're not one of the big powerhouses). After the nerf, we whipped through the last 3 bosses, and it wasn't satisfying for me. It was too easy for us. We got Al'aqir down in about 20 minutes total, as an afterthought because we had extra time that night after Nefarian.

Anyhow now we're on to Firelands.

Boomhouser said...

Well, each person has a different perspective on what they see in another person. It all depends of your point of view and the context of the view.

Atypical maternal figure, perhaps not, but the calm behind the scenes, id agree.

Tracy said...

Aww, that does take some of the fun out of it. Wrong time for the nerf. :( How is your Firelands experience so far?

Our server is second-last in terms of progression! And from the sounds of it, my guild is the only one (on this server) tackling Firelands 25 - which makes us number one by default! Hooray!

One of our 10-mans is up to Ragnaros, but we're still banging our heads on Beth'tilac in 25s. Seems to be a combination of not quite enough dps and healing.

the Drunken Housewife said...

Boom, I don't mean a criticism of you. I put that up because I found it so funny that my own child was so astonished that someone thought I was a maternal figure. It reminds me of a great "Dykes To Watch Out For" strip where one character says, pointing to her mother, "She's like a mother to me."

Iris can't let that "mother figure" thing go. She said very seriously to me yesterday that what she thinks is that I'm "the therapist of the team" and "you're like a therapist to so many people" and she went on to recommend to me that I go back to school for psychology and become a therapist. Aww, what a sweet child. I may not be maternal enough, but she thinks I'm therapeutic.

Caroline said...

Awesome. Just... awesome.

Silliyak said...

What about fostering all those critters for all these years? Should be worth mother creds!

Jen in VA said...

Holy shit, if one of my kids described me as "Weird but surprisingly awesome." I think I'd die of happy!!

TooOrangedToLeaveName said...

Please move comment of the week back to the other side.

I do not handle change well.

-You kNow Who.