Anything.
No, that’s not entirely accurate.
I remember all the words to the theme songs from The Facts of Life and The Fresh Prince of Bellaire. I remember what I wore to most major events and holidays from my childhood. I remember my husband’s social security number and my driver’s license number.
But I cannot remember the day-to-day stuff.
Said in my house, roughly 10 p.m. last night, after lights were out and sleep was almost in grasp:
Me: This week is going to be crazy. I would give anything for a house elf.
Mark (agreeing, but not really listening to me): Mmm-hmm. An elf. Sure.
Me: It would be so great. The elf could cook and clean. Or wrap all the presents.
Mark (barely audible): Yep. Helpful elf.
Me: That stupid Elf of the Shelf does not pull his weight around here. Whatever magic he has is lame, because he doesn’t even move himself… The elf! We didn’t move the elf! I forgot again!
Mark (who has been married to me a long time) says nothing, but gets out of bed and goes to move the elf, just as he has every night since Thanksgiving when one of us suddenly shouts out, The elf! The damn elf!
Poor Bingle, our Elf on the Shelf, is just an allegory for the rest of my life.
I forget all the things that make daily life run smoothly. Like your name. Do not be offended if it takes me three (or more) times to put a name with a face. Until then, I’m going to do my best to be friendly and welcoming without letting on that I don’t know your name. At all.
I forget birthdays, anniversaries, which day we’re supposed to bring a Giving Tree toy to school and whether or not we’re supposed to wrap that toy.
Usually I remember all of these things at some eleventh hour, just in time to make it look like I remembered all along.
But sometimes, I don’t remember. And then I look – and feel – stupid.
So I wonder…
:: Is this an age thing? Or a stage of life thing?
:: Do you forget stuff, or should I make an appointment with the neurologist?
:: If you are forgetful, are there odd things you do remember, like what you wore to school on the first day of ninth grade?
Lapsed homemaker. Looking to hire a full-time housekeeper who will work for the sheer joy of a job well done and free coffee. Interested parties, DM please. 
I forget things too. I never used to. I blame it on the fact I’ve got kids. It could be an age thing. I never thought 32 was old enough to forget so much. But I do. You are not alone.
PS. I’d like a house elf too.
I forgot that Luke does not have school Thursday and Friday of this week until this morning. I have planned those two mornings to the max including being the cookie decorating mom at Katie’s holiday party on Friday – I have to keep looking up the old email to remember what it is I’m supposed to bring to decorate cookies (um its frosting and sprinkles). I forget what I’m saying in the middle of a sentence. You are not alone. I shaved only one leg in the shower the other morning. Awful.
ditto on the house elf. Forgot to put that in my earlier comment. hee.
I have no idea what you’re saying.
The obvious answer is
umm … wait a minute
it’s a …..
no it’s …. darn…
never mind
I would LOVE a house elf. Especially one that cooked and cleaned the bathrooms. I would even keep laundry, which I honestly don’t mind. Much.
I am finding in my LATER 40’s that there is a lot that I don’t remember as readily as I used to. I am choosing to believe that it has everything to do with much more going on than with depleted brain cells.
What a minute, what was your question?
I think it is a mommy brain thing personally. That’s my story and I am stickin’ to it.
i am extremely forgetful. we even have a name for it in our family… (let’s pretend my maternal grandmother’s naiden name is Smith) everytime one of us does something stupid, we say “it’s the Smith in me showing”. my family is notoriously absentminded. it sucks.
Constant. Distractions. Kids. Needing attention. Always. I can’t focus on a darned thing until they go down for naps or for the night, and by that point, there is so much stuff that I still can’t focus! I would seriously forget my children if they weren’t so loud.
My memory is embarrassing now. And I always have prided myself on not having to write anything down!
It all went downhill after Maddie was born.
Also? I now have the theme to The Fresh Prince in my head.
I prided myself on memorizing phone numbers and once upon time, I had one of Shakespeare’s fabulous “Friends, Romans, Countrymen speech committed to memory, but now I am more likely to forget things if I don’t write them down. It’s an age, children, increase in responsibility thing (at least that is what tell myself).
I’m positive it’s mind clutter. There’s so much to remember we can’t remember any of it.
I’m in my mid-twenties and dreadfully, dreadfully forgetful. So I always hope that my memory will stay the same quality of bad as I age, so I don’t end up forgetting my own name by my thirties! And I definitely couldn’t handle that elf – he’s quite the annoying little guy!
It seems to start happening in the midst of motherhood and the stuff of all one has to do with work and home, and THEN age sets in and then it is downhill! Sometimes, I think I need to refer to my drivers license to remember my name!
You know the answer to your question- they call it mom brain for a reason.
But I have a suggestion, check out lumosity.com they have brain training games how cool is that?
I think it’s stage of life. Because my mom remembers everything and she once stood in my shoes and with 7 kids, she was quite forgetful. One time, I’ll never forget, someone asked me my kids’s middle names. I just stood there dumbly for a few seconds, blanking out. That’s about as bad as it gets!
“Mark (agreeing, but not really listening to me):”
This happens to me all the time. In fact, it happened last night at dinner:
Wife: {something something something] don’t you agree?
Me: Yes (Puts on poker face showing that I was listening)
Had the wife called my bluff right there and asked, “Oh. What did you just agree to?” I’d have been screwed. But thankfully, we moved on and it hasn’t come back to bite me yet.
I have a pretty good memory, but I also rely way too heavily on my calendar and to-do lists. I shudder to think what would happen if I lost them.
Thanks, by the way, for putting these lyrics into my head:
“You take the good, you take the bad, you take ’em both and there you have…”
“In West Philadephia born and raised on the playground is where I spent most of my days…”
😉
The only way I remember things is by setting alarms on my phone with specifics. And I’m only 23. So don’t feel bad.
Around here, we call it “Mom’s Door”. It’s that HUGE space in my head taken up by useless info that opens whenever it wants. Kind of like the bing.com commercials.