"C'mon!! How Hard Can it Be to Just READ!!"

Those are the words I kept hearing from my 10-year-old son when I was on set filming 11 videos for an eHow.com video expert series. I took my boys to the shoot with me, since they were on winter break. That might have been a mistake. Not only were they distracting me with occasional comments like that, but I kept getting annoyed with them thinking it was so easy to read the scripts!

I have to be completely honest – I actually thought it would be easy, too. After all, I learned to read when I was less than 5 years old, so that means I’ve been reading for … hmmm … let’s see … well, let’s just say a really, really long time. And I also wrote the scripts myself for all the videos. So how hard could it be, right?!? Well, as it turns out – very hard!! I had to correctly read about two minutes of a script on screen in one continuous shot with no bloopers at all. I know, I know, it doesn’t sound difficult. But let’s just say that the video shoot took a lot longer than I expected.

But there’s the fun part. I finally said to my son, “Okay. If you think it’s so easy, why don’t you come over here and do it yourself?” He gleefully skipped over to show his mom a thing or two. So I sat back and prepared to giggle uncontrollably.

And I did.

After he read about a paragraph he said, “Oh my gosh, Mom!!! This is really hard!!” #herecomemygiggles

Uh huh. So, of course I said, “I told you so!! It’s not as easy as it looks!!”

That’s the lesson in this blog:

Sometimes it ain’t as easy as it looks.

Think about it, how many times have you heard people who don’t have children criticize the “bad parents” in the grocery stores or restaurants? I admit, I was one of those people. Until I had children myself. Now when I see a crying, screaming toddler in the grocery store, I have mad empathy for the parents. Then I say a silent prayer thanking God that I’m past that stage of parenting.

Or how many times have you complained about your server in a restaurant saying or thinking, “How hard could it be to remember to get me a refill for my water?” Well, if you haven’t been a server yourself, you might want to keep that comment to yourself. Anyone who has waited tables will tell you, “It ain’t as easy as it looks!”

I could go on and on with examples. Being a teacher (“They get home at 3:00 and get all summer off!”). Being a working mom (“She doesn’t feed her family healthy meals!”). Being in customer service (“Why is that person so grouchy?”). Being a boss or owning  company (“They get to take time off whenever they want and they are rich!”).

Anyone who is a teacher knows that it’s tough work. And being a working mom is a thankless job sometimes. And you’d probably be grouchy too if you had to deal with demanding, complaining, rude customers all day! And being a boss? Owning a business? Yeah, well, you are a slave to your company. You don’t ever really get a “day off.”

So next time you are so quick to criticize someone because you think it should be “easy,” think again. We’re all just doing our best. And unless you have truly walked in their shoes, you really don’t know how difficult it is.

As for me, I have gained mad respect and give huge props to TV anchors. They make the job look so effortless. They read off teleprompters for a living. I used to think that looked easy.

Boy, was I wrong.

I hope everyone had a great holiday and is off to a productive 2014!!

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My book, Radical Relationship Resource: A Guide for Repairing, Letting Go, or Moving On is now available on Amazon and also here on my homepage or the ‘Books’ page. I also have E-Courses now available as well. (Here’s the link for the book just in case anyone is interested!) http://www.amazon.com/Radical-Relationship-Resource-Repairing-Leting/dp/0615901468/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382560098&sr=8-1&keywords=radical+relationship+resource

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