My Mother's Birthday aka Squatting Day!

January 12th is my mother’s birthday and naturally you are all asking how in the world did that become Squatting Day! Gather around friends and I’ll tell you the tale…

First, you need to know my family has never been able to let go of a joke until it becomes loooooonnnng running. When I was 12, I misspelled “scarp book” and to this day, my brother (10 years older than me) brings it up every time we are visiting. Seriously…

Second, you need to know, my mother was a kook (a proud outrageous woman). I was the last of her children so I really only heard stories about when she drove my brother and his friends around town for them to toilet paper teachers’ homes…also when she made anatomically correct pizza people…and also when she and her friends found increasingly bizarre ways to excha

nge a dead bush in the middle of the night—gold spray paint was involved if memory serves. My mom was a clever and hilarious woman and most of the time she made life fun.

Now and third and most importantly, how did Squatting Day come into being. We (mom, me and my two sons) were playing charades—me and my older son (10) against mom and my younger son (8). We were running neck and neck and we were given the category of “holidays.” My younger son got his holiday and, very cleverly I thought, he put his hands up in a circle (like the “O” in OSU) and then he lowered himself bending his knees a little at a time. My mom’s guess (you guessed it) “Squatting Day.” I can barely contain laughter when I think of the look of outrage on my son’s face when the timer buzzed and he indignantly shouted, “Squatting Day?!” We laughed until we cried…literally.

Family tradition then required us to change her birthday into Squatting Day and we made cards to give to her every year until she passed away. I post “Happy Squatting Day” on my Facebook page every year and I kinda like that very few people get it…until, now, ta-da!

So I confess, my mom and my relationship was complicated but still I hope that all of you had someone in your lives who taught you to laugh at small things and helped you melt multi-colored Tootsie Rolls in the microwave.

For your consideration,

Ellen Larabee MA, LPCC

P.S. Think you know what holiday my son was enacting? Leave it in the comments and I’ll let you know who is right before the clock hits midnight ending another joy filled Squatting Day!