My daughter asks me what is the one thing I wish I had known
before I became a parent. Considering
that I didn’t plan on being a parent, I guess I wished I had known what to
expect.
Those sad wrinkly little boogers stole my heart and
soul. They cried and I fed them or
changed their diaper. I sang to them and
read them books. I rocked them and
nursed them. They were mine 24/7 and I
just had to do whatever it was that needed to be done..
When they were about two and four, I thought I would go
insane. We were down to only one car and
once a week I put the girls to bed and dad babysat which I got away for an hour
of grocery shopping. It was the best
hour of the week. I’m pretty sure I drew
that hour to more time more than once.
As a child I didn’t get my fair share of playing and so when
my girls were little we went to every playground we could find. Our favorites were Discovery Center and the
one that used to be at the corner of Mulford and Guilford in Rockford. They moved that one someplace and we never
did find it again.
We went to the beach or to the pool every day that we
could. We made sailboats and sailed them
on the lake. Swinging on the swings on
the playground was one of my favorite things to do. Once we had a race with old tires that were
at the Quarry Park. We turned them loose
from the top of the hill to see how far they would roll.
One year after Election Day I was so sick of seeing election
signs that we drove around in the car and pretended that we were capturing
enemy flags. I would assign one of the
kids to go get the election sign and the others had to be on the lookout for
any enemies.
I cried so hard when they graduated from high school. One went to Beloit, Wisconsin and the other
the next year to Whitewater, Wisconsin.
It felt so lonely in the house without them.
I guess the one thing I wished I had known was how my heart
could be broken and healed so many times in my life. I wish I had cherished more moments of joy
with them.
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