ShannonAlbert.com - June 2009

A cliché (from French, pronounced [kli'ʃeɪ]), or cliche, is a saying, expression, or idea which has been overused to the point of losing its original meaning, especially when at some earlier time it was considered distinctively meaningful or novel, rendering it a stereotype.

Clichés are used by everyone because they make it easy to not think. Saying something you've heard over and over again without stopping to think what it means or how you feel about it is the easy way out.

Among the clichés I hate the most:
- It's the thought that counts. No, it isn't. It's the execution. I think a lot of things but it takes a lot more work to follow through.
- Parenting is great, kids are wonderful. Not always true. The typical thing seems to be that parents don't want to share the negative sides of parenting and just want to say how awesome their kid is. If we were all a little more honest about it, we'd spare other parents the heartache of feeling like they were the only ones finding it difficult.
- Marriage sucks. If it sucks so much, maybe you shouldn't be married? It's a choice to be married and I certainly don't want to cause someone to sit around and complain and be unhappy. Maybe if you used that energy on your marriage it wouldn't suck so bad.
- Countdowns until the weekend. My Facebook screen is often filled with people counting down until the weekend. Why? If Monday - Friday sucks that bad for you on a regular basis, maybe you should change what you're doing during the week. Weeekends can be fun but let's not constantly complain about what we are doing 71.42% of the time.
- The last election was the choice between the lesser of two evils. Nope, not true, although I heard it several times. We had two great men running for President and we are lucky to have had the choices we did. Saying this just kept people from having to think and engage in an intelligent discussion.

I'm sure there are others that I'm not listing but these are the ones that come to mind. The bottom line is that I wish people would just THINK more and avoiding clichés is a step in that direction.