People Pleasers and Potatoes

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My name is Crazy Mom and I have a confession to make.  I am a people pleaser.  Yep, that's me.   A people please, a peacemaker, a pacifist.  In other words, my goal in life is to get others to like me and to avoid conflict at all cost.  Okay, it's not my only goal, but it pretty much describes who I am.

I am not alone in my people pleasing ways.  My sisters are both people pleasers too, as is my mother.  Lord help us if we offend.  We'll be traumatized for days.  Be nice to us. 

Now, I always knew our mom was a people pleaser, but I never realized how bad it was.  You see, we were at my brother's house for Christmas, and we were all helping out in the kitchen.  My older sister was washing dishes, and my mom and I were drying.  As I wiped out a bowl I noticed some left over mashed potatoes so I cleaned them off and for whatever reason mentioned it to my mom.  She proceeded to tell me that when she was new to the family, some fifty plus years ago, she was also in the kitchen helping dry dishes when she noticed some left over food.  Suddenly she found herself in a horrible dilemma.  Does she tell?  I mean, she's a perfectionist, but dare she insult her hostess?  Oh, my, what would she do?  She kept silent, and did the best she could to eliminate the evidence.  Fifty plus years late the memory still haunts her...

Now even I got a laugh out of that.  I couldn't believe she  was so perplexed.  I told her I certainly didn't think anyone would have thought twice about it if she'd handed the dish back and let them know they'd missed something.  Ah, but that is the life of a people pleaser.  I mean, I certainly understand. 

Now I'd bought two clear glass bowls of corn to the dinner, and I went to grab them before we left, but someone had already put them in the cupboard.  The problem was, I'd forgotten exactly what they looked like.  My sister-in-law pulled a few out of the cupboard.  One I knew was mine, but I wasn't sure about the other.  I took one, looked at it, and noticed something yellow in the bottom of the bowl.  I wiped it out with my finger, and sure enough, it was butter.  I felt like Monk at a crime scene!  It was my bowl alright, I'd loaded that corn up with butter.  So maybe missing a wee bit of food could be a good thing!  I couldn't help but consider the irony of the situation.  The bowl wasn't clean, but no one had noticed.  Or maybe they did, and just didn't say anything.  I wonder if my mom dried that one.  :)