Welcome back reader or two. Thanks for hanging in there.
We were at a gathering of my favorite group of Peace Corps friends the other night when I had a revelation. You see, out of our group of a dozen or so, several had their children long before we did and so their "babies" are now in high school and college. The "kids" are very sweet and actually don't mind hanging out with us old folks once in a while because they get to see each other, and as they were all very well raised, they are just very sweet.
So my revelation as Susanne and I juggled (with lots of help of course from the adoring crowd) Danny and Benji and feeding them and keeping an eye on things etc...it dawned on me that it was really hard to just relax and have a grown up conversation with anyone for any period of time. My glass of wine spent the better part of the evening perched high on a shelf while I played the role of "all star baby wrestling referee mom".
Oh, Su and I got to eavesdrop on a conversation or two, and chime in on a little bit more than just "little boy" minutia, but for the most part we were not really able to fully engage.
Most stunning for me was to realize that 10 or 15 years ago when the same crowd got together, I never realized how much work it was for my friends with young kids. Either they make it look easy, or more likely, I had no awareness whatsoever how hard they were working then. After all, I was flitting around, not a care in the world, never realizing that taking care of kids was quite so...so...all encompassing.
So kudos to Becky and Jeff and Steve and Kurula and Kate and Alvina and Hans. You have raised wonderful kids and I only hope that we can do 1/2 as good a job. And my respect for you all just grew a little greater the other night. -Monica (and Susanne)
P.S. And thanks to you and your kids for all your help with our two whirling dervishes! AND..Dave and Gustavo, everything was delish!
1 comment:
Sounds just about like our social life down here! No one ever lets on just how hard it is, do they? Or maybe they do, but you just can't comprehend until it's you. Although, AG at almost 4.5 is so much easier (when she's not pouring water on babies ;-) that I would have almost forgotten the rough times if I didn't have Alex to remind me!! :-)
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