Okay, you know when someone forgets something or loses something they say, "I'm getting old"? I have figured out a better way to explain our "senior" moments. It's actually from the computer era so any of you computer nerds (like my husband) will enjoy it. It is called "exceeding capacity". If our brain is like a computer hard drive, then I'm sure most of you out there have experienced the lack of capacity problem at least once. Well, I have decided that is what is happening to our brains. Especially moms (and any single dads out there).
Just like your computer has stuff that is constantly running in the background, so does our brain, but instead of security programs, possible viruses, and windows framework it's schedules, meals, bills, etc. And depending on the weather, possible viruses whether it be ours or our family. Think about it. If you work, you're in charge of everything you do at work, remembering your kids' school holidays, programs, science projects, math homework, daycare days, weekend plans, sports or dance, doctors appointments, daily nutritional needs, amount of clothes before you absolutely have to do laundry, household inventory for food and supplies, and then there's more if you're married - your husband's schedule (because apparently he has the capacity of a Windows 97 PC), his daily needs (including food!), dry cleaning, in-laws, birthdays, anniversaries, world holidays, cousins, nieces, nephews, friends, bar-b-ques, hunting season, sports teams' names, seasons, and scores, pet needs, separate tv, music, video game needs for each individual, not to mention housework, gardening, notes to the teacher, notes from the teacher, notes about the teacher.....need I go on? And then your husband has the nerve to gripe when you forget to mention the car needs an oil change!! Or your kids whine when you forget their favorite cereal in the $400 worth of groceries you shopped for, bought, and are now carting in ALONE!!
Just remind them that even an hundred years ago, women of the house, the mistress or lady, wasn't required to do any of this alone. From the lowest born to the wealthy, everyone helped. The nobles had servants to tend to the cleaning, the kids, everything. The mistress was only required to oversee it all was done properly and in a timely manner.
So the next time your boss asks you where that presentation is or you forget what your husband just asked or you can't finish a conversation with a friend because your "hard drive" just crashed, instead of saying you're getting old, say that you've reached capacity. And just like with computers, you need to be restarted. Then find a nice, quiet place, lie down for five minutes, and when you're boss asks what you're doing, you can honestly say, sending an error report to Microsoft!!!
