Five on Friday: Cringiest Moments From My Childhood

Back in the spring days before COVID, I spent a lot of time giving historic site tours to grade school students. When you repeat the same tour over and over again, you start forgetting if you've mentioned certain facts to your current group or if that was only to the group before them.

The same thing happens at home with my kids, starting with when I couldn't remember if I ever taught the baby numbers or colors or animal sounds (though I've never been sure why the latter is is often put on the same level of importance with the previous two). I'd already taught those things at least four times before, so it became hard to keep track.

For some reason lately,  I've been remembering a lot of funny stories from my childhood, mostly of the embarrassing variety. It occurred to me that I might not have told all my "cringiest" (their word) childhood stories to my younger kids! They might be in middle (& high) school now and completely ignorant of what sound horses, make but they won't live another day without knowing that I once walked barefoot through our horse stall when I was a kid!

Let's consider this list of cringy childhood moments as an advanced celebration of my birth month that's coming up. Hard to believe this sweet baby could do anything super embarrassing . . .

So I'll also include these photos, to make it more believable:

Kids, you're welcome.

Top five most embarrassing things that I did as a child 

that I didn't suppress so much that I can't remember them now:

1. I was a young and voracious reader, one of those re-reading the back of the cereal box at breakfast every morning types. This lead me to narrating my life in my head for awhile. One time I was with a friend and said something like, "Let's go outside, Gina said" and then had to act like I did that on purpose to be funny or something.

2. I once tried to break my own leg to get out of doing chores. I was not successful.

3. Mad that my sisters all had "long names" and "short names" and all I had was short name Gina, I decided that I'd come up with my own nickname for people to call me. It was Blueberry Muffin. I was not successful.

Gee, Gina, wonder how you came up with that idea for a nickname?

4. I thought my older sisters looked cool the way they'd get toothpaste lather all over their faces when they brushed their teeth so I started spitting a little out while I was brushing so I, too, could have that super cool "rabid dog with clean teeth" look.

5. Then there was the time I was sledding with the big kids in the yard. I was laying in the snow after happily flying off the sled at the bottom of the hill when I realized I really had to go to the bathroom. That would mean walking all the way to the house and having to take off the many layers of snow gear and, worst of all, miss out on valuable snow play. 

Instead I did what any six-year-old would do: I reasoned that I was already pretty wet, so why not add urine to the mix? It worked out fine in the moment but I totally got busted later.

This tale is the last one for now but I'm sure I could easily whip out another five cringe-worthy stories in a minute, including the time I repeated a slight variation on this last incident but as an adult. (I know, I know, I'm *super* charming!) 

But that, my friends, is for another Friday! Cheers!