At Least I Didn't Drink Pee: Finding Humor in Life's Beautiful Chaos
Hey friend!
Well, at least I didn't drink pee! I think that's going to be my new go-to line when things go wonky. Let me explain.
I was on the phone with our ads manager (let's call him Chris to "protect" his identity). His birthday was the day before, so of course I asked Chris what he did and if he had a good day. His response was priceless: "My son's car had a flat tire so I was busy dealing with that. My dog had to go to the vet from throwing up. And I accidentally drank pee..."
I didn't know whether to laugh or throw up. If I'm being honest, I gagged a bit and laughed out loud!
Chris's youngest son has autism. While he was trying to fix the flat tire, the kid had to pee, so in it went into his dad's water bottle – unbeknownst to dad! Fast forward to driving down the road and dad takes a sip from the unsuspecting water bottle... yep, a mouth full of...
In this same conversation, I was telling Chris that I hadn't made any new content in the last few weeks because my dad had surgery, I'd helped move my youngest daughter back from Missouri, my dad got moved to rehab, and I got a sinus infection. BUT at least I didn't drink pee!
It's so easy to get lost in the chaos of each day that we lose the ability to laugh at the absurdity of it all.
The Chaos is the Point
Y'all, I've been thinking about this a lot lately. We spend so much energy trying to control the uncontrollable, manage the unmanageable, and create order out of pure chaos. But what if the chaos isn't the problem? What if it's just... life?
Chris could have spent his birthday feeling sorry for himself. Flat tire, sick dog, accidental pee consumption – that's objectively a terrible day. But instead, he was laughing about it. He found the humor in the disaster, and that made all the difference.
When Life Becomes a Sitcom
As parent entrepreneurs, we're living in a constant state of beautiful chaos. One minute you're on a client call trying to sound professional, the next you're explaining why a 75-pound golden retriever just jumped into your lap carrying a stuffed duck (true story – happened to me last week).
Here are some of my recent "at least I didn't drink pee" moments:
Went to my pilates class and forgot to wear shoes. It was 40 degrees outside!
Spent 20 minutes looking for my phone while I was talking on it
Had someone from the grocery store help me take the cart to the car, then walked out of the store and promptly drove straight home forgetting to get the groceries
Called my son Ben by the dog's name, Blue, when I was meeting his then-fiancé's mother
Each of these moments had a choice point: get frustrated and stressed, or laugh at the ridiculousness of it all.
Permission to Be Beautifully Human
Last week I wrote about the sabbatical trend among successful women entrepreneurs - how we're all searching for something deeper, a permission to be human in a culture that expects us to be superhuman.
Here's what I'm realizing: humor might be one of our greatest tools for staying human in the midst of all the chaos.
When Chris told me about drinking pee, he wasn't trying to be perfect or professional. He was being gloriously, messily human. It’s in these moments that I really feel connected to people.
The Stories We Actually Need to Tell
We're so good at curating our highlight reels, aren't we? The perfect morning routines, the seamless client calls, the balanced family dinners. But what if the stories that actually matter - the ones that make us feel less alone - are the messy ones?
What if the story about forgetting shoes in 40-degree weather is more valuable than the story about hitting your revenue goals?
What if calling your son by the dog's name in front of his fiancé's mother is exactly the kind of vulnerable moment that reminds us we're all just figuring this out?
The Healing Power of Shared Disasters
There's something deeply healing about sharing our most ridiculous moments. Not for content, not for engagement, but for connection. When I tell you about driving home without my groceries, I'm not just sharing a funny story - I'm saying "me too" to every overwhelmed parent entrepreneur who's ever done something similar.
This is the antidote to the isolation that drives so many of us to sabbaticals. We don't need more strategies or systems or ways to optimize our chaos. We need permission to laugh at it, share it, and find each other in the beautiful mess of it all.
At Least I Didn't...
So here's my invitation: instead of trying to perfect your chaos, what if you just documented it? What if your "at least I didn't..." moments became your proof that you're living a full, imperfect, wonderfully human life?
Because at the end of the day, the goal isn't to eliminate the chaos. The goal is to find yourself - and your sense of humor - right in the middle of it.
Drop a comment below and share your latest "at least I didn't..." moment. Let's collect some chaos stories and remind each other that we're all just figuring it out as we go – and that's perfectly okay.
xx, Heather