a sappy situation
I am not a sappy chick.
I never used to cry at movies. Never. In high school, we'd watch chick flicks, and my friends would be sobbing, and I was totally cool. Maybe a little misty, nothing more. I prided myself on my non-girliness.
Well, since I became a mother, my toughness has completely gone out the window. Show me a scene of a mother loving her children, or a mother fearing for her children, or a mother protecting her children, and I am just a goner.
The silliest movies have been making me cry. The new Star Trek movie made me cry. Star Trek, people! An action movie! In space! But here you have this mother, delivering a baby, all the while listening while her husband (spoiler alert!) is disintegrated. How horrible would that be? And then later another mother (whom I totally didn't recognize as Winona Ryder) vanishes right before her son's eyes. And then the other night I was watching The Incredibles--again, an action movie, albeit an animated action movie for children--and I got choked up. The missiles are coming for the plane, and Elastigirl is yelling, "Abort, abort, there are children on board!" and desperately trying to figure out how to save her kids...I just couldn't help it. I cried a little bit. It was sad.
I don't know why this is the case. It's not like these things weren't sad before. It's not like I didn't have feelings before. Somehow, having children has just upped my Sappiness Sensor. I used to be able to keep my distance from the things I was watching. Now, even a completely fictionalized and unrealistic depiction of a woman losing someone she loves is enough to make me, in the back of my mind, imagine losing someone I love...and the choking up ensues.
Is it hormones? Motherlove on steroids? Senility setting in? I don't know. Just make sure that if you sit next to me at a movie--even an action movie--you bring the Kleenex.
I never used to cry at movies. Never. In high school, we'd watch chick flicks, and my friends would be sobbing, and I was totally cool. Maybe a little misty, nothing more. I prided myself on my non-girliness.
Well, since I became a mother, my toughness has completely gone out the window. Show me a scene of a mother loving her children, or a mother fearing for her children, or a mother protecting her children, and I am just a goner.
The silliest movies have been making me cry. The new Star Trek movie made me cry. Star Trek, people! An action movie! In space! But here you have this mother, delivering a baby, all the while listening while her husband (spoiler alert!) is disintegrated. How horrible would that be? And then later another mother (whom I totally didn't recognize as Winona Ryder) vanishes right before her son's eyes. And then the other night I was watching The Incredibles--again, an action movie, albeit an animated action movie for children--and I got choked up. The missiles are coming for the plane, and Elastigirl is yelling, "Abort, abort, there are children on board!" and desperately trying to figure out how to save her kids...I just couldn't help it. I cried a little bit. It was sad.
I don't know why this is the case. It's not like these things weren't sad before. It's not like I didn't have feelings before. Somehow, having children has just upped my Sappiness Sensor. I used to be able to keep my distance from the things I was watching. Now, even a completely fictionalized and unrealistic depiction of a woman losing someone she loves is enough to make me, in the back of my mind, imagine losing someone I love...and the choking up ensues.
Is it hormones? Motherlove on steroids? Senility setting in? I don't know. Just make sure that if you sit next to me at a movie--even an action movie--you bring the Kleenex.
14 comments:
Well I can tell you, no woman trying to get pregnant should watch Up! It made me cry twice! I probably would have got past the 2nd sad part without a tear if it hadn't set me up to cry already with the super sad part at the beginning.
In the words of Larry the Cucumber, "I laughed, I cried, it moved me Bob."
I'm glad I'm not the only one! I feel like, since I became a mom, I've become quite a blubberer. There was a preview of an end of the world movie just before Harry Potter where two parents were holding their child while a tsunami came to wash them all away--it left me violently sobbing--from a 2-second clip!
I know. Me too. I cried at Up too. It should have a warning label before entering the theater. Wonderful movie, but emotional too.
I get choked up by that same part in Incredibles. Every time we watch it. Weird.
Thank goodness it isn't just me! Cars is the movie that makes me cry EVERY time. When he pushes The King across the finish line....that's it, I am done! I am seriously dreading being able to hold it together the first day of school. I am prying that I can at least make it the van before I break down sobbing.
I am with you. I wasn't so sappy until I had #1, now after #3 I could cry reading the boys a bedtime story. I must have issues :)
I've always been a weeper, and now after having kids it's amazing I make it through a day without crying. Now silly things like children walking down the church aisle in their Christmas costumes make me cry.
And then, strangely, there are new things I don't cry at anymore. Romantic love stories, for example. Yep, romance doesn't get so much as a sniffle out of me anymore.
Uh yeah, Up. I had just had a miscarriage. Eh. Now I'm 2 ish months pregnant and I saw time Travellers wife and I BAWLED though the WHOLE thing. I'm the same, I don't usually cry a lot, but gosh these hormones are KILLING ME! and you're right, with each kids it gets exponentially worse.
I was bad enough before having kids, and it gets worse with each kid. Now with my husband gone... well your husband gave me a hug camping and said something like "be nice or I'll hug you to death" (not exact words but something like that) It took everything I had to hide the tears from him. I just said "ok, I miss hugs"
Yeah, don't even look at me or I may cry. I think I need a shirt with a warning or something! lol
Ok, I have pitch in here as the non-childbearer... I think pure age must have something to do with it, because I used to be perpetually dry-eyed in high school and into college, but more and more occasions bring me to tears as each year goes by. I still don't cry at the drop of the hat or anything, but, yeah, UP, Star Trek, the occasional sappy commercial--there may have been a few sniffs.
I think much of it has to do with growing up, experiencing suffering, seeing how things/people can (and will) be lost. We have more empathy as adults and have developed the ability to identify much more acutely with fictional characters.
@Julie--trying to get pregnant, huh? Congrats in advance :)
@Marie--congrats on the new pregnancy. How was Time Traveler's Wife, other than sad? I liked the book and have been wanting to see the movie.
Ha ha... Julie it is no wonder people keep asking you if you are trying to get pregnant yet! You set yourself up for that one. :)
I still need to see Up!
And for the record I cry all the time now too. Even if I just look at Kaden while he is sleeping I get tears in my eyes! :)
Umm, unfortunately I'm crying right now! That is no surprise to you, but really silly things make me cry now more than ever. There is an action adventure CD series my kids love to listen to and I'm always getting choked up when the kids are in danger or something bad is about to happen to the mom. Then when I found out she was pregnant with a little surprise baby, I BAWLED! :)
Cried during "Star Trek" as well, but at a totally different section: the part where the old Spock comes out and tells the young Kirk, "I have been, and shall always be, your friend." SOB!
But yes, the mom-crying is there, too. It was most noticeable for me in the first scene of that Nic Cage movie where he's an angel - City of Angels - and in the very first few minutes of that movie, he's dispatched to take to heaven a child with a high fever. The mother is in the hospital screaming and trying to get in to see her daughter, while he quietly takes her away. I couldn't take it. Had to leave the room.
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