Coming Full Circle

“Dad, the baby was up all night … again!”
“Ma, all day long, she hangs on my leg and I can’t get anything done.”
“Dad, she won’t stop crying, what do you think it is?”
“Ma, what did you do when we wouldn’t eat?”
Ah, the great circle of life, it took so long to get here.


“Joe, you know, God doesn’t make grown-ups, God makes babies.”
Everybody loves babies. I’m not wrong making that statement, am I? Sure, some people are more excited about the thought of having kids than others, but really … aren’t babies adorable? I’ve yet to see one that isn’t. And don’t they always smell so good? Well … Almost always that is. I love it when they look up at you and smile. The best is when they grab a hold of your finger. (Although, my kids later learned not to fall for that one.) Babies are so tiny and dainty. They have little itsy-bitsy fingers and toes … little rubbery arms and legs … and very small noses (probably for their own survival). Babies are born little angels. So then … what happens to them?

“Honey, we did our best. There is no such thing as completely childproofing your house.”
I was really missing the days when my kids were babies. Some of my fondest memories are of them being toddlers. Our first experience with children came in the form of “double-trouble”. There was no fighting over who would hold the baby. My wife and I had one apiece. But when they became toddlers, they defined the phrase “the terrible twos”! We were both “on duty” at all times. Suddenly it was like there were two of us and twenty of them. It was a job keeping them out of harms way. It wasn’t too bad during the crawling stage, but when they took to walking, we’d have to split ourselves in two when they headed in different directions. And if I recall correctly their first words were … “Me too!” That of course is because everything we did … we had to do twice. They made sure of that!

“Kids really brighten a household. They never turn off any lights.”
During their school age years my kids were very much like me. Come to think of it, that could be the other way around, my wife still yells at me for not turning off the lights. But seriously, the pre-teen years are full of surprises. Parents really learn a lot at this stage. We come to realize things like … when you hear the toilet flush and then the words, "uh-oh!", it’s already too late. You learn that Play-Doh and microwave ovens should never be used in the same sentence. Super Glue is forever. And back then (yes I’m old) … VCRs do not eject Peanut Butter & Jelly sandwiches, even though TV commercials showed they did. What we’ve learned was that a good sense of humor was essential for getting you through this stage of your child’s growth.

“Joe, remember adolescence? That’s the age when children try to bring up their parents.”
It doesn’t really matter how experienced you are by the time your child becomes a teenager. It’s during a child’s adolescent years when most parents turn gray. It’s the age at which children stop asking questions because they know all the answers. And parents, thinking they got a handle on parenting at this point, learn yet a few more interesting things. Like cleaning the house while teenagers are at home is like trying to shovel the driveway during a snowstorm. And they learn there are three ways to get something done … do it yourself, hire someone to do it, or you could forbid your teenager to do it. A friend of mine summed it up nicely … Raising teenagers is like nailing Jell-O to a tree.

Don’t you agree … having kids is fun? I'd really like to know.

“Honey, don’t you wish we had more children?”
“Sweetie, Don’t you remember all those times we told our kids … to just wait until they have kids? Let’s just be thankful we’re still around to enjoy the show.”