Chronicles of a Faux-Parent
Good evening, friendly chippers. I wish I could carry you in my pocket as I go about my adventures here for the next two weeks. My life as a stand-in parent is full of lessons and moments that I wish you could all live vicariously with me...which I suppose is one purpose of blogging.If you had been in my pocket, your face would be peaking out seeing, learning, hearing the following:
- Mekenzie's first day of school...her wide-eyes, her reserved demeanor, her curiosity shining through her big eyes, her independence, her confidence. And you realize that you have done a damn good job raising this fat baby who needed you for everything and who now can be left without you and learn on her own. It is all at once deeply satisfying and terrifying.
- That you have to seriously stop and see these moments. There is so much to distract us from the ability to see, really see a child. Because I don't live with them, I feel a special gift at being able to do this. When I do live with them, will you help me see this?
- That mothers {ahem!! anyone staying home with a child, thanks leif} are fucking saints and never, never done.
- Waking up to happy children is one of the greatest feelings.
- There is little time for blogging.
- Never to play memory with Mekenzie if you don't want your ass kicked. Also, drink wine if possible.
- That I could seriously be RICH if I could invent children who raised themselves. You could program in the personality traits that you desire, turn them off so you can run errands alone, set the mode to self-clean...you get the idea. Any investors?
- Gavin's incredibly generous spirit as he offers you his ice cream, or doesn't want to leave Mekenzie at school because he misses her, or wants to have everyone participate in games.
- To see the intimate life of a woman you've known for 12 years and still love every inch of her soul, just as you did then. Her tireless selflessness, her refusal to give up, her insatiable appetite for learning and bettering herself as a parent, her capability to run this entire show with her ability to be all of this AND still pursue, buy wine for you, listen to you, care for you as a friend.
- That people live their lives differently than you...and that it can be every bit as successful as how you live your life. There are many different ways to be human; this knowledge leads us to compassion and tolerance.
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Scott and Teresa Goodrich
My beautiful sister and her husband...
XXOO,
crm
crm
3 comments:
I promise to stop and see your kids.
Also, I like you. and the beautiful ways that big love in you comes out. It's pretty rocking.
Fathers, too, are never done. Whether we are saints or not is up for debate.
Your sister was totally responsible for any stylishness that may have ensued that day. But thank you.
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