(no subject)

[shadesong]

When I was a kid, my mother played Mah Jongg every Thursday night. She played with four other Jewish mothers. They'd rotate whose house they played at, so once a month, we had the women around the kitchen table, clacking down tiles, drinking cream soda and nibbling Hershey's Miniatures that mom set out in little glass bowls.

This was my idea of womanhood, what we were supposed to grow up to be; I always assumed that, as I grew older, I would learn to play Mah Jongg... I've been assuming this up until recently, imagining that, at some point, Elayna will help me fill the little glass bowls with Hershey's Miniatures and run off to play Barbies with so-and-so's daughter in her room, occasionally peeking in on us moms and being gently shooed away.

I've just had an epiphany.

I am never going to be a Mah Jongg mom. I've pretty much never had three female friends at the same time anyway - I hang out mostly with guys. And no one I know knows how to play Mah Jongg. And I don't have little designated glass dishes for the Hershey's Miniatures - I have a Sailor Moon apothecary jar for the Dove Promises.

I am going to be a D&D mom. I'll be sitting around the kitchen table, gaming, with men *and* women, some of whom are not parents, drinking Coke and coffee instead of cream soda. And that's the image of womanhood my daughter's going to grow up wth.

I like that. :)

Comments

[chrisv.livejournal.com]

That's really beautiful, 'song. Wow. :-)

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it just struck me this morning as I was talking about gaming. I was, in the back of my head, expecting to somehow, someday, magically become a Mah Jongg person. I'd never really actively realized that before. But that isn't me, and I don't think it's going to happen, but that's okay - being a woman and a mother doesn't necessarily mean behaving like other women and mothers. Which I already knew, but hadn't applied to that idea yet.

[technomom]

I like that :-) My parents played pinochle with other married couples. I like D&D better. And so do the kids. BTW, Elayna is getting old enough to start playing herself!

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

She kinda is, isn't she! :) She doesn't have any friends who have freak moms like me, though, so no one to game with.... unless everyone wants to run a kid-level game before she goes to bed then switch to our game afterward...

Re:

[technomom]

Sam runs games for kids from time to time. I think we've had 8 to 14-year-olds in the game - or is there a 15-year-old, Sam? And our older kids have started running their own games with the other kids whose parents game with us :-)

[michaelnolan.livejournal.com]

If it helps, Vanilla Coke tastes a little like creme soda...

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Glad you finally found some! :) I'll stick to coffee, though...

[yendi]

We can still install Shanghai on your iMac, then you can be a sorta Mah Jongg Mom! :-)

But I like the idea of being D&D parents better. Cooler books to read, for one.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Nah. Happy being what/who I am. :)

We need to go to the gaming store next weekend! I need shiny new dice.

[satyric.livejournal.com]

That's just wonderful. :)

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Oh, hi! :)

Yeah, I'm gradually growing comfortable with the person I am and the person I'm becoming. And the above realization put a smile on my face. :)

[deza.livejournal.com]

It was bridge for my parents. Got both of them out of the house.

Can I be one of your D&D moms, too? Please? I promise to play a cleric that gives a whole new meaning to healing spells! ;)

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

This is going to become a porn game, isn't it? *sigh* :)

Of course you can come play with us! The world needs more D&D moms. We're planning to get together and roll characters when I get back from Florida - maybe next weekend?

*Grins* Warning: Gaming Story Ahead!

[sambear.livejournal.com]

We're already there! :)

It's really funny, a game or so ago we were playing my Doomwarden D&D 3rd Edition campaign. Sanji was subjected to a curse from a dying Lhiannon Sidhe and she was terrified about its implications. Jayce Kaifur, a gay human NPC who's a priest of Orielle (goddess of the Purple Dawn, a goddess of sex, healing, love, and peace), offered to cleanse her of her curse. When she said, "OK", he grabbed her and kissed her deeply, tongue and all, so hard that she could feel her toes curl and her tail (she's a Katzen) straighten.

Quoth Sanji, "You sure you're chaiche?" (The katzen turn for "one who loves one's own gender"). Jayce said, "Now, don't go getting cursed again - I can't do that very often!"

And, as I remember, technomom's character, Tarafear (pron. tara-fae-yar) has, herself, been subject to some "sexual" healing from a Priestess of Orielle who was also an Aerie (the winged bird-people of my game).

Anyway, it was just funny that you mentioned that, deza.

My parents played pinochle too!

[sambear.livejournal.com]

Amazing. I was always glad for the break from parental oversight. I used to watch TV until my brains drooled out of my ears.

[technomom]

Sounds like a cleric of Orielle in one of Sam's games :-)

[edie22.livejournal.com]

Alright -- um, i don't do *any* of those things. And my current hobbies could not be shared with a child. "Yes, dear, mommy is writing a story." Good thing I don't have kids, huh?

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

If you lived here, we'd have you gaming. :) And I have to do the shoo-mommy's-writing thing too!

[stronae.livejournal.com]

Also, technically, you do know someone who plays Mah-Jongg. :P But you're right, though -- I've been given no idea from my parents what a parent-archetype is (or supposed to be), but being a kid, I'd probably like to see at least one parent roleplaying with their friends in Good Jovial Fun. As it stood, it was my Elder Cousin who got me into it by Exposure (rather than by Inclusion).

Good for you.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Right, and you know that I'm completely socially malformed/unformed - I wasn't around Mom much, so the regularity of this one activity really stuck in my head.

[alfheimr.livejournal.com]

That is an ubershibby entry. Thanks - I really enjoyed reading that. Honest and just touching. *waves* Hi.

By the way - Mah Jong rules.{

[edie22.livejournal.com]

I must add that I LOVE your icon. Damn.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

"ubershibby"? I like that word!

And thanks. :) I occasionally do write something honest and very present amid the crap that takes up most of my journal. :)

[darkmattr.livejournal.com]

Been there, done that, I don't know how many nights I was kept up until 2am on tuesday night listening to the clacking of tiles and the calls of 7 bam, 4 dragon.