Lauren’s Law: Looking Back At 2022 And Forward To 2023

Full disclosure, I’m nine months pregnant. So, I’m slightly phoning it in and reminiscing about some of my favorite Lauren’s Law columns from 2022. And before officially turning a page to 2023, I’ve also shared bonus stories and thoughts on these favorite topics.

Right out of the gate, I’m jumping into April’s National Siblings Day article for two reasons. One, I had the greatest memory come flooding back the other day. I think I was about 8 years old and offered to make my older brother, Joe, a sandwich for lunch with every intention of pulling a practical joke on him. He requested a ham and cheese sandwich. However, I deliberately didn’t remove the plastic wrapping on the Kraft singles cheese slice. My brother hadn’t even taken a bite before I began hysterically laughing.

Joe: “Why are you laughing?”

Me: “Eat up, and I’ll tell yah.” (A classic take on a “Dumb and Dumber” film quote that couldn’t have been more perfect for the occasion.)

Joe pulled out the plastic wrapping during his first bite. Thankfully, he was a good sport about it.

The other reason I love this column is because I featured fun sibling duos that grew up in Severna Park. To my amazing readers: please send me your similar sibling stories (say that alliteration phrase five times fast too) that continue to make you, your brothers and/or sisters laugh year after year.

Another favorite column was my June toddlerisms story. Without fail, my kids continue to make me laugh daily. The most recent one came from my four-year-old daughter, Charlotte, on Christmas Eve. Saying to her two-year-old-sister, Riley, 15 minutes before bedtime on Christmas Eve: “It’s the last day we need to behave, stop that!”

Charlotte was trying to help rein Riley in, but boy was she wrong about behavior going out the window on Christmas morning. Or was she? We’re still working through some of that.

Anyhow, some of you have shared how much you connected with my toddlerisms story and have already passed along your amazingly funny one-liners from the tiny people in your lives. Thanks to those who have already contributed and to anyone else with stories, I’ll be doing a follow-up story soon and welcome more submissions.

So, remember to email me at Lburke15@gmail.com to share your sibling and toddlerism stories. They might just end up in a future Lauren’s Law column.

Last but not least, as we all hit the ground running in 2023 – I wish all my readers a healthy and happy new year.

Lauren Burke Meyer is a Severna Park native who was inspired to write Lauren’s Law as a humorous play on the well-known Murphy’s Law adage: “anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.”