Laughter was the medicine of the day when I talked with Eric Ruhalter, the author of the book Phrazzlers. This is a book of words that Eric made up to describe the crazy things kids do, from the parent perspective, like~ “peehearsal” ~ one of the frequent accidents that occur before potty training is successfully completed.

We laughed a great deal during this conversation! Mine and Eric’s children are in the teen years. But, oh, the book brought us back!! And while it made us laugh, we also talked about the loneliness of parenting. Eric’s discovery that the book made parents feel less alone was awesome. It was a gift that he was not expecting.

Sticks and stones can break my bones, but, words will never hurt me ~ I believe that adage is grossly incorrect. In my teen years, I was deeply hurt by words thrown at me and about me. Words carry energy and that energy spirals around and since energy does not die, what happens to the negative things we say in haste or judgement or pain? I think it swirls around out there until it is transmuted and shifted. Eric’s book is a great way to transmute some of that negativity and add joy to the world. It is a way to tip the balance in favor of positive energy. Those early years of parenting were very lonely and very stressful. Everything is always happening for the first time, because each child is different! I feel that we have lost something valuable with how our society parents today. We tuck the primary care giver away (in my case, most of us were women) in their homes, with “playdates” here and there to break up the monotony and confusion of parenting. Here I was a hard core career woman, avidly pursuing my acting career when I had my first child. All the books and seminars could never have possibly prepared me for how my life changed when Landon was born! It was so much of a world spinner that I wrote a solo show about it called

Baby, Oh Baby 

that explored the surprises of new parenthood! More on that another day. Until then, check out Eric’s youtube promo video for the book called~ 

                                                                                  Kids Are Not Normal 

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