Parenting Sucks

Notice I didn't say being a parent sucks. It doesn't. I love my kids and I love being a mom. It's the decions that suck. Some days, I just don't want to be the parent. I want to be young and irresponsible and make decions based on wants instead of need.

Our big girl is getting to the age that some of her activities conflict with other activities and we have to leave her. Or we don't want to sit around for an hour while she takes voice or practices with the band or dances or whatever. We have talked about getting her a cell phone. Is that not the scariest thing? Your child needs a cell phone? I would have loved to have a cell phone when I was a kid. I don't remember hogging the phone at home, but I remember Big Sis hogging it. Mermie had to finally get us our own phone line. I would like for it to be that simple. Just add a line at the house and call it good. Hubby gets a discount on a home phone. Cell phones are the bane of my existence. I'm not giving mine up, just so you know. Unless we get a free one when we add the big girl in a couple of months. Then I get the free one and she gets mine, because that's the way the world works. When the kids start driving (I cannot believe I just went there), they get hand me downs, and hubby and I get the new.

I had to drop my tap class. I love my tap class. This year, schedule wise, we would have been in the same predicament as last year. It would have left us with a very long Wednesday and four snarky people at the end of the day. Or we would have to drive home to turn around a couple of hours later and make the trip again. Not doing it. It's over an hour round trip. That's great for listening to a book on CD, but not so great for trying to get anything done. I don't like feeling like I have to hurry and get things done because I have to leave the house again. We plan trips with multiple stops so we don't have to go to town too often, or just for one thing. It saves time and gas that way. So do I give up something I love so the baby can dance? Well, yeah, that's what parents do. I would rather see her face light up with joy. That gives me more joy than any other thing. I love for my kids to be happy.

How do I make all their dreams come true? How do I make sure that they are well rounded individuals? I love them. We have been blessed that we have found pretty inexpensive ways to foster their dreams. Dance is our big expense. It really isn't that bad, and we get alot for our money. I like that. We have a friend giving the voice lessons, and we got a great deal on it. The big girl gets lessons from a classically trained singer and we get to help someone work her way through college. Book club for the big girl at a local library, chess club at a different library for the boy. Both of those are free. Foster the love of books in the big girl and get the boy to develop thinking and reasoning skills.

Will we buy them their first car? No, but we'll help them. They need to get a job and their own money and learn how to handle their own fundage. Will we pay for college? We'd like to be able to. Depending on where they go, we may need some hefty grants and scholarships. We will do what we can to help our kids reach and surpass all their goals and dreams. If we keep making right decisions.