Life with Children

Do all parents wonder what they did with their time before they had kids? The toddler years are expectedly busy because you are running after fast and dangerous little critters. The only purpose for chairs is for them to climb on and fall off of. You never get to sit down.

The young school age years are a series of the call, "Mom," "Mom," "Mom, Look!" You may become accustomed to this crazy series of interruptions, but it does become apparent as soon as you try to make a long phone call, or need ten minutes to finish a puzzle... in quiet. There is no 10 minute interval of quiet with school-age kids.

Our oldest is mid-high school age. She is a challenge on a whole new level. It is both enjoyable and dangerous that she will not need me for hours on end. How much space to give? How much contact is enough, without invading her privacy? The mystery continues. The only thing I have learned from 37 kid-years of parenting is that by the time I figure out what to do, the problem has morphed into a new one.

And I wouldn't give up a minute.... except when they bicker!