And Then There Was One

Kids! Sigh......

It has been a bit since my last blog post and apparently it has been long enough that a few have started to notice. In the last week I keep getting asked the same thing over and over again....."Why aren't you blogging?" Why? Please refer to the first word of the first line. Kids!

When we bring the little buggers into the world, we simply fall in love. Everything they do from their first smile to their first poop is magical. The way they drool, squench their nose or even fart makes us over the moon proud and we are powerless not to fall in love even more with every passing second. I have long been of the mind that God has a sense of humor and one of His biggest jokes is giving us our children as babies, because only He knows, that if He gave them to us as full on teenagers.....most of us would give them back within a week. 

As these kids grow, even though they try our patience at times, we are enraptured with their first words, first steps and first kisses. These things alone seem to counteract our view of the tantrums, moments of stubbornness and flat out refusals to listen.

By the time the kids hit their teen years though, the cuteness has worn thin as attitude, hormones and outside influences start taking a hold of our precious little angels. Suddenly the parent/child relationship starts looking more like a battle of Us against Them. Us being the ones who are so uncool, so out of touch and so stupid that they are amazed we can dress ourselves and Them being cool, technologically savvy and wise beyond their teenage years.

In my experience, their brilliance lasts until the real world punches them in the throat and they suddenly realize that parents have a little more going for them than just being their own personal ATM. The day that a child wakes up and realizes that their parents weren't uncool....they were simply busy being a parent, nor were they out of touch...they knew a whole lot more than they let on and in fact.....were quite smart....juggling a household, bills and kids and making it look easy...that is they day the Us against Them ends and we as parents can breathe a sigh of relief and know we have done our job.

I have gotten to this stage with three of the five. Of course I had little to do with how great the older two turned out, but I like to think I helped. Do they have all the answers? No and the beauty is.....they know it. Realizing you aren't as smart as you thought you were is a huge sign of maturity. However, I still have two to get to this point. Thus my lack of blogging. Keeping my sanity, dignity and self respect while working to the end goal of raising an honest, respectable, respectful human.....can at times, be trying. Doing it on your own.....well that can be overwhelming.

Sometimes as parents, we have to stand back and let go. Our wisdom may tell us they aren't ready, but there comes a time when their life becomes their choice. We are there.

And then......there was one.