Consider yourself warned!
A guide for those who think they want children.
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Now that my kids are older, I find myself looking at babies and little kids between the ages of 4 and 7, and wishing that my kids were that age again. Can you imagine? I finally got to a point in my life where my kids are teenagers and are self-sufficient, and here I am wanting to go back to when they were babies!
I got a chance to re-live that time of my life through my friend’s daughter last Sunday. My friends and I were at a jazz brunch. One of my friends brought her three-year-old daughter with her. Her daughter is sooooo precious. She’s one of those kids that when you see them, you just want to snatch them up and run. Fortunately, I’ve watched enough episodes of Law and Order to know that that’s not a good idea. Anyway, watching my friend with her daughter, made me remember back to when my daughter was her age and how much fun we had together. That was when she still wanted to hang around me. Now, she prefers her friends over me. When the band started playing, I asked my friend’s daughter if she wanted to dance. Of course she did! What three-year-old wants to sit at a table when she could be on the dance floor? So, she put down her spoonful of chocolate cake, and after her mom cleaned her face, we were off. Well let me tell you. We had a great time together. She got to dance, and I got to feed the maternal hunger I had. But, there was one thing that I had forgotten about little kids. Dancing with her made me remember that little kids have a lot of energy, energy that I don’t necessarily have anymore. Then I started thinking back on what it was really like when my kids were little. When my kids were that age, our Saturdays were filled with activities. First, it started with dancing school for my daughter. While she was at dancing school, I would take my son for a walk in the Botanical Gardens (at that time, admission was free before a certain time). After dancing school, we rushed to their martial arts class, and from there to swimming. While the kids were at swimming class, I would run to the grocery store. Luckily for me, the grocery store was right down the block from the Y where the kids had swimming class. When I reflect on that time in my life I wonder, “Where did I get the energy to do all that?” I honestly don’t know! I remember we would come home after swimming class and after I put the groceries away I would ask the kids if they were ready for a nap. The answer was always an empathic NO!! They would play, and play, and play. All I wanted to do was take a nap. But I couldn’t. I had to stay awake to keep an eye on them. Eventually, I would have them sit on the couch so we could watch TV together. I would sit down with them and my eyes would start to close. Next thing I knew, I was waking up, the TV was watching me, and the kids were playing in either the living room or their bedroom. Oh well, at least they didn’t wake me up from my nap. I know you must be wondering, what’s the point of all this? Well here it is … when you have little kids, they will have much, much more energy than you, so you better get your rest now! So, now you have it and now you can … Consider Yourself Warned!
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Two weeks ago, my kids and I went on a road trip. Our trip lasted ten days. We, meaning I, drove to Atlanta stopping in Washington, Charlottesville, Durham, and Charlotte to visit colleges (with the exception of Charlotte, there we just stopped there to visit friends).
I have to admit, at first I was dreading this trip. All I could think about was how would I survive being in the car for days with teenagers? These kids have perfected the art of war at home. I could only imagine what it was going to be like trapped in the car. At least at home they can each retreat into their own rooms. Where could they go in a moving car? But, I have to admit, it was nowhere as bad as I thought it would be. In fact, for the most part, it was actually fun. It had been a long time since we did a road trip like that and I had forgotten how a long car trip could bring a family closer together. When we left Brooklyn, my son whipped out the speakers and played music from the Pandora app on his phone. Don’t you love technology? We were singing like we were the black Partridge Family riding down I-95 in a silver Mazda SUV (I know I dated myself with that Partridge Family reference .. oh well. I know some of you remember that show. If not, Google it.). It was fun at first, that is until we got tired of the music he was playing. Eventually, my daughter wanted to listen to the Hamilton sound track, which her brother and I are sick of hearing, and I wanted to listen to something a little more mellow than Nikki Minaj. So what to do? Herein lies the first of many lessons that I learned while road tripping with teenagers:
So, Consider Yourself Warned! |
SassyGirlTye lives with her two wonderful teenagers in Brooklyn, New York. No matter what she says in her posts, she truly loves her children with all her heart.
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