Auld Lang baloney should be forgot
Sunday December 27 2009
THE young master has brought so many blessings into my life that I'd be hard pushed to name them all. One unexpected benefit of becoming a parent has been the ability to avoid New Year's Eve and all of the baloney that surrounds it.
I am, and have always been, a New Year Scrooge -- and I'm proud of it. I can't abide the enforced jollity, the frantic rush to have fun, and the endless, endless hype. It's all so strained and stressful that there's always tears before bedtime (mine, usually).
Then there's the annual reckoning: What did you achieve during the year? What progress did you make? It's like a giant mental school report and this year, it's even worse because we're looking back on the decade and not just one measly year (and wasn't it a measly year?).
This time three years ago, I was heavily pregnant with Jack (picture a walrus who'd eaten an elephant) and imagined that I'd get a free pass. No such luck. I was forced to sit up until "the bells". But now things are different. I have a small child and no way can I go out gallivanting when every possible babysitter (my mother included) is out partying. The sheer relief.
Tomorrow, the young master and I depart for Dublin where we are going to spend New Year's Eve with like-minded friends. We will while away the hours before bedtime watching DVDs of 30 Rock and Father Ted. If we are all still up at midnight, which I very much doubt, we will not sing Auld Lang Syne or get maudlin about the passing of time. And, none of us will wake up with raging hangovers on January 1. That's what I call a Happy New Year.
- Anne Marie Scanlon
Originally published in
