My house was invaded by bees this month. Well, according to my husband, they are yellow jackets.  But to me?  Anything that has stripes, wings and a stinger is a bee.

But regardless of their taxonomy, they invaded my basement and my life.

We eventually got rid of them thanks to our hero, Gary the Exterminator  Guy.  But, in the meantime, they created a bit of drama in the house.

I should have expected that. I live with a drama queen.  The invasion of the stinging beasts simply emphasized that fact.

I warned my kids that the bees, make that yellow jackets,  dying in the basement could still sting. My son, per normal, didn’t listen.  Instead, he went barefoot into the Kid Cave, stepped on a yellow jacket and got stung.  He then calmly came upstairs to tell me he’d been stung and his foot hurt. That was it. The incident was over, and he never mentioned it again.

My daughter, on the other hand, over reacted as usual.

She was already perturbed that I didn’t share her belief that the start of school also marks the beginning of Halloween season. She was insistent that the time to decorate had come.  When I didn’t respond to her demands to bring up the tub of Halloween decorations up from the basement, she took matters into her own hands.

But, a dying yellow jacket had found the tub first.  Keep in mind, it had died.  It could have been easily flicked away. But, that would have been under normal circumstances  when  a drama queen wasn’t involved.

A drama queen changes everything.

My daughter ALMOST touched the yellow jacket, and the subsequent scream traveled farther than the recent earthquake that shook the East Coast.

I absolutely love my daughter, but about eight years ago I came to the inevitable conclusion that Shakespeare knew a girl just like her when he said “all the world’s a stage.”

On the positive side, there are benefits to being the mother of a drama queen.  It not only helps you to be less reactive,  it also helps you to completely ignore it.

Which is a good thing considering what’s going on in our country right now. We’ve got a lot of drama queens and people who encourage them.   I’m not sure which is worse.

Anyone who has lived or worked with a drama queen,  knows this is someone who blows things way out of proportion.   A drama queen often views the world in absolutes.  In short, drama queens are all about creating crisis out of any situation. And the more people pay attention, the more drama ensues.

If you pay any attention to the news,  you probably think the world is  being taken over by drama queens.  If the invasion of the yellow jackets had made the news? I’m pretty sure there would be a world-wide scare and a call to exterminate every flying insect.

Sadly,  I’m pretty sure that a lot of people  pay more attention to drama queens than they are to the facts.

I’m not saying our country is perfect or that changes don’t need to be made.

But I am saying that using fear or emotional blackmail to drive the political process is completely ridiculous.  Very few matters or situations are black and white, but drama queens love black and white.

They thrive on it.

But, as the mom of a drama queen , I’ve learned that one of the best way to deal with faux  drama is to simply complicate matters. Add facts, variables and diverse opinions.   Instead of creating drama, create genuine discussion.

And if the drama continues anyway? Simply do what I do with my daughter – ignore it.

I’m pretty sure it works with most drama queens.

I’d like to create some more buzz about the issue. But, the moment, I’ve had enough of both buzz and drama.