What’s a “jimmy” you ask? Well, it’s a personality type that doubles as my family’s best running joke.
I can’t even remember the exact time in my life that “jimmy” started, but it was when I was younger because it has been around for a while. If you’ve ever seen the movie Cheaper By The Dozen 2, think about the dad that owns the expensive house across the lake, Jimmy Murtaugh, played by Eugene Levy. That’s where the name “jimmy” came from, however, for my family, it’s not always used as a name, but more often as an adjective.
“Jimmy” is a word used to describe a common personality type that shows up in my entire Miller side of the family. It starts at the top, with the two biggest “jimmy’s”: my dad, Scott, and my uncle, Ross. They are what we would refer to as full-bred “jimmy”. They possess all the character traits and personality attributes that encompass the adjective “jimmy”.
It then travels down the line to me and my cousins. Since we are related by blood to full-bred “jimmy’s”, we all have, as my dad would say, “a little ‘jimmy’ in all of us”. Between my cousins and I, we all differ in the amount of “jimmy” characteristics we have. For example, my cousin Andrew has the most. He’s pretty much a full-bred “jimmy” (and he’s proud of it). Then it goes to half-”jimmy’s”. The rest of us (my cousins Ashley and Jocelyn and my siblings Zach, Emily, and Chloe) possess some “jimmy”-qualities, but aren’t as extreme as the top three. I’ll let them decide what characteristics they think they do and do not have.
Lastly, we have people that aren’t related to a “jimmy” by blood, but rather by marriage. This is my mom, Steph, and my aunt, Jude. This is also all the spouses of my siblings and cousins, including my cousins Anne, Ryan, and Nate, and my siblings-in-law, Al and Christian. One would argue that none of these people have any “jimmy” characteristics, but I would say that if you’re married to someone with some “jimmy” in them, it rubs off eventually. (I won’t name any names.)
Now I know you’ve been anxiously waiting for me to address the big question: what exactly does “jimmy” mean? Well, the time has come. The other day, I was wanting to tell someone quickly what some “jimmy” characteristics were, so I texted in my family group chat. I ended up getting a much larger response than anticipated, so I thought to myself “might as well make an entire blog post about it”.
Here are the top characteristics that make up a “jimmy”:
Discussing / commenting on the weather often
Sports are a common discussion topic
Thrifty / always looking for a deal
Rarely overspends unless it’s for food or event tickets
Likes to be in the front of the pack when walking somewhere
Always talks about the plans / what’s coming next
Usually in a hurry
Gets hangry easily
Very hard working
Competitive
Will always make sure you have enough food for a get together
Typically better if it’s their idea to go out to eat or get ice cream
For airports: they will carry the tickets/passports & you must get there minimum 2 hours early
Short attention span / bottom-line people / not a lot of details
“Life of the party” -Andrew Miller
A person with “jimmy” characteristics is good to have around in long lines, severe weather, a famine, high-price situations, and high-stake competitions. On the other hand, times when it is rather stressful to have this type of person around would be in airports, vacations that don’t have an itinerary, last minute change of plans, the weather changes out of nowhere, or being on the losing team in anything.
You might be wondering, what is it like to have a family full of “jimmy’s”? Well, close your eyes and imagine this:
You’re on your way to a Miller family gathering that was planned months ago. Last week, at least three different people told you what the weather was going to be for that day. You are also fully aware of every type of food that is going to be eaten, as well as what time each meal is going to be consumed. You know that nothing you do that day will be a surprise because everything was very planned out with timestamps and everything. You arrive on time to the gathering and greet everyone. Ten minutes will not go by without you hearing at least one of three things: the weather forecast, sports talk, or a deal someone got on something they bought. It is now meal time and for some reason, you feel like everyone is in a rush to get eating (probably due to either hangry-ness or keeping on schedule). There’s plenty of food and you eat a ton while having great conversation. After, you’re stuffed, but that doesn’t matter because it’s time for dessert and ice cream and you’ll be pressured into having some. The rest of the day will be filled with lots of games, like bocce ball, dutch blitz, dice, catch phrase, or euchre. In games, there's no going easy on anyone - even if you’re a beginner. You might even go on a walk, but you don’t have to worry about where because one of the top “jimmy’s” will be in front to lead. Overall, it’s a great day with great people and you leave feeling happy and loved by the best family in the world.
We do make fun of the “jimmy’s” in our family a lot but it’s mostly because we love them and all their quirks. Having someone with a little “jimmy” in them in your life is a blessing and I’m super lucky to be surrounded by all of them. I would have to agree with my cousin Andrew when he said that “jimmy’s” are “all around [the] most fun to be around #jimmylife”.
If you have any questions about the “jimmy” personality type or want to share any of your family’s quirks, comment down below or email me!
Check out this fun slideshow of some of my favorite Miller family pictures!
thanks for reading, madelyn kate
-this blog post was sponsored by the game catch phrase, a loud, fast game that my family used to take way too seriously-
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