It’s Saturday, March 6, 2010. Do you know where your children are?

I used to love those commercials as a kid. I’d be watching television, and then this stern voice would come on and say, “It’s 10pm. Do you know where your children are?”

I would always answer him and say, “My children? I haven’t even had sex yet!” So then I’d run upstairs, wake up my Mom and Dad, and say “I’m here, in case you were wondering.”

 

My Mom would say, “What makes you say that Son?” I’d tell her, “The scary man on Channel 11 always asks ‘It’s 10pm, do you know where your children are,’ so I’m just telling you I’m here.” Then they would thank me and go back to sleep on opposite sides of the bed.

I’ve learned that is a behavior you never want in a relationship. Think about it. “Goodnight Dear.” “What? I can’t hear you all the way over here on the other side of the bed. Oh…goodnight Babe.”

So you might be wondering where I am going with this blog, and why we are all crying like babies. I’m glad you asked, because I was losing track of my mind today.

Have you ever been to a party where every conversation that people are having around you made you feel like you were from another planet? You are wondering why you can’t feel how these people are feeling and why you can’t seem to connect with them.

The reason you feel this way is because you are in monkey chatter mode. Whenever you go to a party and people are talking about things in which you have no interest, what you do is get frustrated.

Instead of listening and enjoying the conversation, and waiting for something about which you do want to talk, you start crying like a baby in your head. You say to yourself, “Waaaaaaaaah, I can’t talk to these people!” or “Waaaaaaaah, I’m socially inept!”

 

In reality, though, this is one of the best times to grow socially. It gives you the opportunity to listen and to learn.

I guarantee that you’ll be at another party at which the same subject matters will come up in a conversation, except then you’ll have stuff to contribute because at the first party you listened and stopped crying like a baby in your head. So stop feeling sorry for yourself and start realizing that the more you learn, the better conversationalist you will become.

When you go home tonight after a night like this, and you’re laying in bed beating yourself up for not being able to impress anybody with your conversational skills, realize that you just learned things that you didn’t know before now. If you learned something during that evening then that, by itself, made it an amazing night.

so maybe we should change this whole thing to, “It’s 10pm, do you know where your monkey chatter is?” Have a great Saturday, and I’ll see you guys at the monkey cages at the children’s zoo tonight.