A few months ago I was contacted by a producer from Telepictures.
He thought my blog was funny and wanted to meet with me in person
about a project involving "moms."
A week later, I was driving to the telepictures office in Burbank.
The entire way there I was trying to imagine what they wanted to talk
to me about. I was stressed out the entire way there because I had no
idea what was going to happen once I arrived there.
I can't even tell you the amount of "nervous gas" that built up inside
of me as I made my way up the elevator to meet with people I didn't
know about something I was clueless about.
*pfrrrrrrrrrat taaatataaatrrrrrdadtaaa*
I was greeted in the lobby by Jason, the man who had originally
contacted me. He was very friendly. So friendly that I kind of wanted
to invite him on a picnic where I would feed him fried chicken and
potato salad from Albertson's deli and push him on the swings and make
him go reeeeeaaaaally high while we both giggles and he and shouted
things like "Higher, Y! Higher! Weeee!"
No, seriously, he was that sweet.
He took me back into an office where there were two women waiting to meet me.
It was a casual environment, which made me feel at ease immediately.
For some reason, I had imagined a huge room full of Very Important
People sitting in very large chairs staring at me, like "Who is this
Large Woman wearing an Old Navy Tshirt and a plaid skirt and why is
she wasting our time?"
Luckily, my day dream was way off base. There were no awkward stares
or very large chairs. Instead, there were three very friendly, funny
people who wanted to sit down and listen to me talk about myself and
my children.
No! Really!
Long story short—they had found my blog. They liked it, thought I was funny and that I was a good "story teller" (Shut it.). We talked, I toldstories. I left. A few months went by, yada yada yada, next thing you know I'm sitting with a group of incredibly funny, intelligent woman (one of them who just happened to be the (soon to be ex) wife of Shaquille O'Neal) shooting the shit about being moms.
And oh, there were cameras there to record it.
Go ahead and watch it if you’re curious as to what I have to say about spanking, but quite honestly, I didn’t say much. Being on camera didn’t come naturally to me. (as you can see.) I was also very self conscience my LARGE-NESS and was trying to not move so as not to jiggle. (ha ha. Look at how stiff I was.) What I would have said had I not felt awkward and large was probably something like this:
I used spanking with my first son, because it was the form of discipline that was familiar to me as I was spanked as a child. (In fact, the last spanking I got from my dad happened when I was 18 years old. And NO, I did not hit him back, Chris. Ha. Ha. But, that’s another story for another time.) I didn’t spank the way that my parents spanked. There were no belts or sticks involved and it was usually done in the exact moment that my child was talking back or doing things that were dangerous and could cause him harm, like, oh, I don’t know, LIGHTING MATCHES. But by the time my second son was born, I realized that there were other, more effective ways of disciplining a child.
Anyway. There was a lot more said that day and I have no idea as to whether that will ever go up on the site. What I do know is that entire experience was incredibly fun and although I hate looking at myself on camera (only watched it once, will NEVER watch it again.) I am glad that I didn't let my insecurities and fear stop me from doing it. It's not every day that a major production company finds your blog, thinks you're funny and asks you to come on down and be a part of something like that.
I just have to say...you have the CUTEST voice ever!!!!!!