Weekly Wellbeing: Seeking out people with different problems

I just watched an episode of Jon&Kate Plus 8. I really enjoyed seeing a full 30 minutes of someone else's life that is clearly, on a daily basis, much more chaotic than mine. As I sat, folding laundry, in my quiet-child-in-school-and-no-one-melting-down home I realized how incredibly blessed I am. I get overwhelmed easily. I get freaked out by too much chaos. I am the absolute most perfect person in the world to have only one child. And, if the reality show is real, Kate is absolutely the perfect person to have 8 kids.


I think it's good to look at other people's lives. I have never found someone whose life I would rather have. We are not rich, I am not beautiful, I am not famous, and I will probably not win a Nobel Prize, but I have a good life that suits me well. Even lives that look really good on the outside seem to have problems on the inside that I would not want to have. My daughter is healthy. Steve is healthy. I am healthy. My parents are both still alive. I have fabulous friends. I have enough to eat, good books to read, a roof over my head, and comfy flannel sheets on my bed. I may not have my own reality show (which, let's face it, would be one boring show), but neither do I have to divide my attention between 8 children each afternoon.

I like hearing about other people's problems, not so I can judge how messed up they are, but so I can appreciate how perfectly suited my problems are to me.